se with men
who have had reason to quarrel with the world) dreary and despairing;
and Morton's own experience had been so sad, that these opinions were
more influential than they could ever have been with the happy. However
in this, their second reunion, there was a greater gaiety than in
their first; and under his host's roof Morton insensibly, but rapidly,
recovered something of the early and natural tone of his impetuous and
ardent spirits. Gawtrey himself was generally a boon companion; their
society, if not select, was merry. When their evenings were disengaged,
Gawtrey was fond of haunting cafes and theatres, and Morton was his
companion; Birnie (Mr. Gawtrey's partner) never accompanied them.
Refreshed by this change of life, the very person of this young man
regained its bloom and vigour, as a plant, removed from some choked
atmosphere and unwholesome soil, where it had struggled for light
and air, expands on transplanting; the graceful leaves burst from the
long-drooping boughs, and the elastic crest springs upward to the sun
in the glory of its young prime. If there was still a certain fiery
sternness in his aspect, it had ceased, at least, to be haggard
and savage, it even suited the character of his dark and expressive
features. He might not have lost the something of the tiger in his
fierce temper, but in the sleek hues and the sinewy symmetry of the
frame he began to put forth also something of the tiger's beauty.

Mr. Birnie did not sleep in the house, he went home nightly to a lodging
at some little distance. We have said but little about this man, for, to
all appearance, there was little enough to say; he rarely opened his own
mouth except to Gawtrey, with whom Philip often observed him engaged in
whispered conferences, to which he was not admitted. His eye, however,
was less idle than his lips; it was not a bright eye: on the contrary,
it was dull, and, to the unobservant, lifeless, of a pale blue, with a
dim film over it--the eye of a vulture; but it had in it a calm, heavy,
stealthy watchfulness, which inspired Morton with great distrust and
aversion. Mr. Birnie not only spoke French like a native, but all his
habits, his gestures, his tricks of manner, were, French; not the French
of good society, but more idiomatic, as it were, and popular. He was
not exactly a vulgar person, he was too silent for that, but he was
evidently of low extraction and coarse breeding; his accomplishments
were of a mechani