RKS French Literature: Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers: Of Noble Birth but of Vulgar Tastes (Victor Hugo)

…the prospect of an approaching marriage grew less attractive to him each day. Besides, he was of fickle disposition, and if the truth must be told, rather vulgar in his tastes. Although of noble birth, he had contracted, under his officer’s accoutrements, more than one of the habits of the common soldier. He delighted in the tavern and its accompaniments, and was never at his ease save amidst coarse witticisms, military gallantries, easy beauties and as easy conquests. He had notwithstanding received from his family some education and polish; but he began his career too young, had too early kept garrison, and each day the varnish of the gentleman became more and more worn away under the friction of the gendarme’s baldric.

Victor Hugo, “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”