peace of mind, which
something--I have no idea what--has disturbed so tremendously."

Tussmann was a most abstemious person. His sole recreation (for
"dissipation" we cannot term it) consisted in his spending an hour or
two every evening in a cafe; where, whilst he read assiduously
political and other articles in newspapers, as well as books which he
brought with him, he sipped a glass of good beer. Wine he seldom
touched, except that after service on Sundays he allowed himself a
small glass of Malaga with a biscuit, in a certain restaurant. To go
about dissipating at nights was an abomination in his eyes. So that it
seemed incomprehensible how, on this particular occasion, he allowed
the stranger, who hurried away towards Alexander Street with long
strides, resounding in the darkness, to carry him away with him without
a word of objection.

When they came into the wine-shop there was nobody there but one single
customer, sitting by himself at a table, with a big glass of Rhine wine
before him. The depth of the wrinkled lines on his face indicated
extreme age. His eyes were sharp and piercing, and his grand beard
marked him as a Hebrew, faithful to the ancient laws and customs of his
people. Also his costume was very much in the old Frankish style, as
people dressed about the year 1720; and perhaps that was why he had the
effect of having come back to life out of a period of remote antiquity.

But the stranger whom Tussmann had come across was still more
remarkable of aspect.

A tall, meagre man, powerfully formed as to his limbs and muscles,
seemingly about fifty years of age. His face might once have passed for
handsome, and the great eyes still flashed out from under the black
bushy eyebrows with youthful fire and vigour. The brow was broad and
open; the nose strongly aquiline. All this would not have distinguished
him from a thousand others. But, whilst his coat and trousers were of
the fashion of the present day, his collar, his cloak, and his barret
cap belonged to the latter part of the sixteenth century. But it was
more especially the wonderful eyes of the man, and the blaze of them
(which seemed to come streaming out of deep mysterious night), and the
hollow tones of his voice, and his whole bearing--all in the most
absolute contrast with things of the present day--it was, we say, all
these things taken together which made everybody experience a strong
sense of eeriness in his proximity.

He nodded to the