Fear worked in him unquestionably, but what I seemed to see best was some malignant design which he hoped to conceal by an air of conciliation and a quality of respectful bonhomie.
"The Frozen Pirate"
W. Clark Russell
And the Trimalchio of Petronius, a man of low, tainted origin, the creature of economic accident, whose one faith is in the power of money, who boasts of his fortune as if it had been won by real talent or honourable service, who expends it with coarse ostentation and a ludicrous affectation of cultivated taste, may be tolerated in literature, if not in actual life, for the charm of a certain kindly bonhomie and honest vulgarity, which the art of Petronius has thrown around him.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
His natural bonhomie stood him in good stead; it charmed his friends and non-plussed his enemies.
"The History of "Punch""
M. H. Spielmann