which put you off the hooks--which I have no humour to witness.
Nevertheless, Mr. Darsie--or--poof--Mr. Darsie Latimer--or--poof,
poof--eh--aye, Mr. Darsie without the Latimer--you have acknowledged
as much to-day as assures me you will best be disposed of under the
honourable care of my friend here--all your confessions--besides that,
poof--eh--I know him to be a most responsible person--a--hay--aye--most
responsible and honourable person--Can you deny this?'

'I know nothing of him,' I repeated; 'not even his name; and I have not,
as I told you, seen him in the course of my whole life, till a few weeks
since.'

'Will you swear to that?' said the singular man, who seemed to await the
result of this debate, secure as a rattle-snake is of the prey which
has once felt its fascination. And while he said these words in deep
undertone, he withdrew his chair a little behind that of the Justice, so
as to be unseen by him or his clerk, who sat upon the same side; while
he bent on me a frown so portentous, that no one who has witnessed the
look can forget it during the whole of his life. The furrows of the
brow above the eyes became livid and almost black, and were bent into
a semicircular, or rather elliptical form, above the junction of the
eyebrows. I had heard such a look described in an old tale of DIABLERIE,
which it was my chance to be entertained with not long since; when
this deep and gloomy contortion of the frontal muscles was not unaptly
described as forming the representation of a small horseshoe.

The tale, when told, awaked a dreadful vision of infancy, which
the withering and blighting look now fixed on me again forced on
my recollection, but with much more vivacity. Indeed, I was so much
surprised, and, I must add, terrified, at the vague ideas which were
awakened in my mind by this fearful sign, that I kept my eyes fixed on
the face in which it was exhibited, as on a frightful vision; until,
passing his handkerchief a moment across his countenance, this
mysterious man relaxed at once the look which had for me something
so appalling. 'The young man will no longer deny that he has seen me
before,' said he to the Justice, in a tone of complacency; 'and I trust
he will now be reconciled to my temporary guardianship, which may end
better for him than he expects.'

'Whatever I expect,' I replied, summoning my scattered recollections
together, 'I see I am neither to expect justice nor protection from this
gentlem