d portmanteaus bore the labels of
many journeys. The men brought them in from the dog-cart; the strong cob
pawed the gravel a little, and the moonlight flashed back from the
silver harness, from the smooth varnished dashboard, the polished
chains, and the plated lamps. I stood staring out of the door, hardly
seeing anything. Indeed, I was lost in a fruitless effort of memory. The
groom gathered up the reins and drove away, and presently I was aware
that Stubbs, the butler, was offering me a hat, as a hint, I supposed,
that he wanted to shut the front door. I mechanically covered my head
and strolled away.

I was trying to remember where I had seen Professor Cutter. I could not
have known him well, for I never forget a man I have met three or four
times; and yet his face was perfectly familiar to me, and came vividly
before me as I paced the garden walks. Instinctively I walked round the
house again, and paused before the door that had attracted my attention
an hour earlier. I listened, but heard nothing, and still I tried to
recall my former meeting with Cutter. Strange, I thought, that I should
seem to know him so well, and that I should nevertheless be unable to
connect him in my mind with any date, or country, or circumstance. In
vain I went over many scenes of my life, endeavoring to limit this
remembrance to a particular period. I argued that our meeting, if we
really had met, could not have taken place many years ago, for I
recognized exactly the curling gray hairs in the professor's beard, the
wrinkles in his forehead, and a slight mark upon one cheek, just below
the eye. I recollected the same spectacles; the same bushy, cropped gray
hair; the same massive, square head set upon a short but powerful body;
the same huge hands, spotlessly clean, the big nails kept closely pared
and polished, but so large that they might have belonged to an extinct
species of gigantic man. The whole of him and his belongings, to the
very clothes he wore, seemed familiar to me and witnesses to his
identity; but though I did my best for half an hour, I could not bring
back one circumstance connected with him. I grew impatient and returned
to the house, for it was time to dress for dinner, and I felt cold as I
strolled about in the frosty moonlight.

We met again before dinner, for a few minutes, in the drawing-room. I
went near to the professor, and examined his appearance very carefully.
His evening dress set off the robust proporti