He arranged yachting excursions for bad sailors, entirely
at his own expense, and seemed to regard their subsequent agonies
as ingratitude.
He loved to manage a wedding. Once he planned matters so that the
bride arrived at the altar three-quarters of an hour before the
groom, which led to unpleasantness upon a day that should have been
filled only with joy, and once he forgot the clergyman. But he was
always ready to admit when he made a mistake.
At funerals, also, he was to the fore, pointing out to the grief-
stricken relatives how much better it was for all concerned that
the corpse was dead, and expressing a pious hope that they would
soon join it.
The chiefest delight of his life, however, was to be mixed up in
other people's domestic quarrels. No domestic quarrel for miles
round was complete without him. He generally came in as mediator,
and finished as leading witness for the appellant.
As a journalist or politician his wonderful grasp of other people's
business would have won for him esteem. The error he made was
working it out in practice.
THE MAN WHO LIVED FOR OTHERS
The first time we met, to speak, he was sitting with his back
against a pollard willow, smoking a clay pipe.
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