e made me gasp. I was prepared for something
strange, but not for so overpowering a personality as this. It was his
size which took one's breath away--his size and his imposing presence.
His head was enormous, the largest I have ever seen upon a human being.
I am sure that his top-hat, had I ever ventured to don it, would have
slipped over me entirely and rested on my shoulders. He had the face
and beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid,
the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue, spade-shaped
and rippling down over his chest. The hair was peculiar, plastered
down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead. The
eyes were blue-gray under great black tufts, very clear, very critical,
and very masterful. A huge spread of shoulders and a chest like a
barrel were the other parts of him which appeared above the table, save
for two enormous hands covered with long black hair. This and a
bellowing, roaring, rumbling voice made up my first impression of the
notorious Professor Challenger.

"Well?" said he, with a most insolent stare. "What now?"

I must keep up my deception for at least a little time longer,
otherwise here was evidently an end of the interview.

"You were good enough to give me an appointment, sir," said I, humbly,
producing his envelope.

He took my letter from his desk and laid it out before him.

"Oh, you are the young person who cannot understand plain English, are
you? My general conclusions you are good enough to approve, as I
understand?"

"Entirely, sir--entirely!" I was very emphatic.

"Dear me! That strengthens my position very much, does it not? Your
age and appearance make your support doubly valuable. Well, at least
you are better than that herd of swine in Vienna, whose gregarious
grunt is, however, not more offensive than the isolated effort of the
British hog." He glared at me as the present representative of the
beast.

"They seem to have behaved abominably," said I.

"I assure you that I can fight my own battles, and that I have no
possible need of your sympathy. Put me alone, sir, and with my back to
the wall. G. E. C. is happiest then. Well, sir, let us do what we can
to curtail this visit, which can hardly be agreeable to you, and is
inexpressibly irksome to me. You had, as I have been led to believe,
some comments to make upon the proposition which I advanced in my
thesis."

There was a brutal directness