he conceit to believe himself a very clever man. A
certain desire for influence and reputation interested him in the
business intrigues of the giant city in which his flukes were made. He
became at last one of the most influential shareholders in the company
that owned the London flying stages to which the aeroplanes came from
all parts of the world. This much for his public activities. In his
private life he was a man of pleasure. And this is the story of his
heart.

But before proceeding to such depths, one must devote a little time to
the exterior of this person. Its physical basis was slender, and short,
and dark; and the face, which was fine-featured and assisted by
pigments, varied from an insecure self-complacency to an intelligent
uneasiness. His face and head had been depilated, according to the
cleanly and hygienic fashion of the time, so that the colour and contour
of his hair varied with his costume. This he was constantly changing.

At times he would distend himself with pneumatic vestments in the rococo
vein. From among the billowy developments of this style, and beneath a
translucent and illuminated headdress, his eye watched jealously for the
respect of the less fashionable world. At other times he emphasised his
elegant slenderness in close-fitting garments of black satin. For
effects of dignity he would assume broad pneumatic shoulders, from which
hung a robe of carefully arranged folds of China silk, and a classical
Bindon in pink tights was also a transient phenomenon in the eternal
pageant of Destiny. In the days when he hoped to marry Elizabeth, he
sought to impress and charm her, and at the same time to take off
something of his burthen of forty years, by wearing the last fancy of
the contemporary buck, a costume of elastic material with distensible
warts and horns, changing in colour as he walked, by an ingenious
arrangement of versatile chromatophores. And no doubt, if Elizabeth's
affection had not been already engaged by the worthless Denton, and if
her tastes had not had that odd bias for old-fashioned ways, this
extremely _chic_ conception would have ravished her. Bindon had
consulted Elizabeth's father before presenting himself in this garb--he
was one of those men who always invite criticism of their costume--and
Mwres had pronounced him all that the heart of woman could desire. But
the affair of the hypnotist proved that his knowledge of the heart of
woman was incomplete.

Bindon's idea