ight that
was nothing to them, seeing that he always did his quota of work the
next day. But Mr. Moulder did not get drunk. His brandy and water
went into his blood, and into his eyes, and into his feet, and into
his hands,--but not into his brain.

The other was a little square man in the hardware line, of the name
of Kantwise. He disposed of fire-irons, grates, ovens, and kettles,
and was at the present moment heavily engaged in the sale of certain
newly-invented metallic tables and chairs lately brought out by the
Patent Steel Furniture Company, for which Mr. Kantwise did business.
He looked as though a skin rather too small for the purpose had been
drawn over his head and face so that his forehead and cheeks and chin
were tight and shiny. His eyes were small and green, always moving
about in his head, and were seldom used by Mr. Kantwise in the
ordinary way. At whatever he looked he looked sideways; it was not
that he did not look you in the face, but he always looked at you
with a sidelong glance, never choosing to have you straight in front
of him. And the more eager he was in conversation--the more anxious
he might be to gain his point, the more he averted his face and
looked askance; so that sometimes he would prefer to have his
antagonist almost behind his shoulder. And then as he did this, he
would thrust forward his chin, and having looked at you round the
corner till his eyes were nearly out of his head, he would close
them both and suck in his lips, and shake his head with rapid little
shakes, as though he were saying to himself, "Ah, sir! you're a bad
un, a very bad un." His nose--for I should do Mr. Kantwise injustice
if I did not mention this feature--seemed to have been compressed
almost into nothing by that skin-squeezing operation. It was long
enough, taking the measurement down the bridge, and projected
sufficiently, counting the distance from the upper lip; but it had
all the properties of a line; it possessed length without breadth.
There was nothing in it from side to side. If you essayed to pull it,
your fingers would meet. When I shall have also said that the hair
on Mr. Kantwise's head stood up erect all round to the height of two
inches, and that it was very red, I shall have been accurate enough
in his personal description.

That Mr. Moulder represented a firm good business, doing tea, coffee,
and British brandy on a well-established basis of capital and profit,
the travelling commercial w