Trapnel wanted, among other things, to be a writer, a dandy, a lover, a comrade, an eccentric, a sage, a virtuoso, a good chap, a man of honour, a hard case, a spendthrift, an opportunist, a raisonneur; to be very rich, to be very poor, to possess a thousand mistresses, to win the heart of one love to whom he was ever faithful, to be on the best of terms with all men, to avenge savagely the lightest affront, to live to a hundred full of years and honour, to die young and unknown but recognized the following day as the most neglected genius of the age. Each of these ambitions had something to recommend it from one angle or another, with the possible exception of being poor - the only aim Trapnel achieved with unqualified mastery - and even being poor, as Trapnel himself asserted, gave the right to speak categorically when poverty was discussed by people like Evadne Clapham.

There is, after all, no pleasure like that given by a woman who really wants to see you.

___Susan poured herself out some more wine. She said:___"You're nice. You must come and see me some time. I live miles away from anywhere with my father. You'll like him."___"Tell me about him."___"He's a curious little man with a walrus moustache."___"What does he do?"___"He's a failure."___"Where does he fail?"___"Oh, he doesn't any longer," she said. "He's a retired failure, you see. You must meet him."___"I'd like to.

In fact, she [Pamela Flitton] seemed to prefer 'older men' on the whole, possibly because of their potentiality for deeper suffering. Young men might superficially transcend their seniors in this respect, but they probably showed less endurance in sustaining that state, while, once pinioned, the middle-aged could be made to writhe almost indefinitely.

The struggle of today, is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also.

He saw the pleasure you took from your job every day of his life, and THAT was what he wanted.