Jeffery Farnol

“ But Bellew, knowing nothing of that latter-day hysteria which wears the disguise, and calls itself “Temperament,” and being only a rather ordinary young man, did nothing of the kind. Having lighted his pipe, and read the letter through again, he rang instead for Baxter, his valet.
Baxter was small, and slight, and dapper as to person, clean-shaven, alert of eye, and soft of movement,—in a word, Baxter was the cream of gentlemen’s gentlemen, and the very acme of what a valet should be, from the very precise parting of his glossy hair, to the trim toes of his glossy boots. ”

“ George, sir; indeed, the Army is very popular.”
“Ah?” said Bellew, settling the tobacco in his pipe with the aid of the salt-spoon, “Proceed, Baxter.”
“Thirdly, Mr. George, there are those who are content to—to merely disappear.”
“Hum!” said Bellew.
“And lastly sir, though it is usually the first,—there is dissipation, Mr. George, Drink, sir,—the consolation of bottles, and—”
“Exactly!” nodded Bellew. “Now Baxter,” he pursued, beginning to draw diagrams on the table-cloth with the salt-spoon, “knowing me as you do, what course should you advise me to adopt?” ”