f strength about him, but it
wanted concentration and arrangement. His features were rather
exaggerated and coarse in outline, with the high cheek-bones common on
the north side of the Tweed; his hair of an unhappy vacillating color
that could not make its mind up to be red; and his eyes, that rarely met
you fairly, of a light cold gray. About the mouth, in particular, there
was a very unpleasant expression, alternately vicious and cunning.

I do not believe that his intimates, if he had any, in their wildest
moments of conviviality, ever called him "Jack;" nor his mother, in his
earliest childhood, "Johnnie." Plain "John Bruce" was written
uncompromisingly in every line of his face; just the converse of
Forrester, whom old maids of rigid virtue, after seeing him twice, were
irresistibly impelled to speak of as "Charley."

I wish some profound psychologist would give us his theory on the
question of "The influence of nomenclature on disposition and destiny."
It is all very well to ask, "What's in a name?" I think there is a great
deal; and that our sponsors have much to answer for in indulging their
baptismal fancies. Not to go into the subject (which some have already
done without exhausting it), have you not remarked that Georgiana is
always pretty and slightly sarcastic; that Isabella has large, soft,
lustrous eyes--generally they are dark; that Fanny invariably flirts;
and that Kate is decided in character, if not haughty?

Tragedy and comedy both are forced to observe these nominal
proprieties. Who was it that illuminated his house, and had the church
bells rung, on finding a name for his hero? We should never have
believed in Iago's treacheries if he had appeared before us as simple
"James."

The new arrival seemed to have chilled us all into stupidity. Dinner
languished; and afterward, Guy, after trying at first to be laboriously
civil--the sense of duty was painfully evident--lapsed into silence,
passing the claret rather faster than usual, so that Mr. Raymond, to his
intense disgust, had to make an effort and force the conversation.

When we entered, Isabel was nestling under Miss Bellasys' wing, from
which shelter she had to emerge at Bruce's request for some music. She
went directly, and played several pieces that he asked for straight
through, while he stood gravely behind her with a complacent air of
proprietorship which was inexpressibly aggravating.

When her task was done she went back to her sofa