Why, it's grand; the best thing that could have happened! What
a meeting we've had to-night! What do _you_ say, Dan?'

Richard represented--too favourably to make him anything but an
exception--the best qualities his class can show. He was the English
artisan as we find him on rare occasions, the issue of a good strain
which has managed to procure a sufficiency of food for two or three
generations. His physique was admirable; little short of six feet in
stature, he had shapely shoulders, an erect well-formed head, clean
strong limbs, and a bearing which in natural ease and dignity matched
that of the picked men of the upper class--those fine creatures whose
career, from public school to regimental quarters, is one exclusive
course of bodily training. But the comparison, on the whole, was to
Richard's advantage. By no possibility could he have assumed that
aristocratic vacuity of visage which comes of carefully induced cerebral
atrophy. The air of the workshop suffered little colour to dwell upon
his cheeks; but to features of so pronounced and intelligent a type this
pallor added a distinction. He had dark brown hair, thick and long,
and a cropped beard of hue somewhat lighter. His eyes were his
mother's--keen and direct; but they had small variety of expression; you
could not imagine them softening to tenderness, or even to thoughtful
dreaming. Terribly wide awake, they seemed to be always looking for
the weak points of whatever they regarded, and their brightness was not
seldom suggestive of malice. His voice was strong and clear; it would
ring out well in public places, which is equivalent to saying that it
hardly invited too intimate conference. You will take for granted that
Richard displayed, alike in attitude and tone, a distinct consciousness
of his points of superiority to the men among whom he lived; probably he
more than suspected that he could have held his own in spheres to which
there seemed small chance of his being summoned.

Just now he showed at once the best and the weakest of his points.
Coming in a state of exaltation from a meeting of which he had been
the eloquent hero, such light as was within him flashed from his face
freely; all the capacity and the vigour which impelled him to strain
against the strait bonds of his lot set his body quivering and made
music of his utterance. At the same time, his free movements passed
easily into swagger, and as he talked on, the false notes were not few.
A w