res, not
to be made public, threw a place in his regard, and here, with somewhat
more difficulty, a partial insight into his mental conformation. In
later days this insight grew more clear, as the intimacy which had at
first permitted it became more close; and when, after three years of the
character of the Baron Ritzner von Jung.

I remember the buzz of curiosity which his advent excited within the
college precincts on the night of the twenty-fifth of June. I remember
still more distinctly, that while he was pronounced by all parties at
first sight "the most remarkable man in the world," no person made any
attempt at accounting for his opinion. That he was unique appeared
so undeniable, that it was deemed impertinent to inquire wherein the
uniquity consisted. But, letting this matter pass for the present, I
will merely observe that, from the first moment of his setting foot
within the limits of the university, he began to exercise over the
habits, manners, persons, purses, and propensities of the whole
community which surrounded him, an influence the most extensive and
despotic, yet at the same time the most indefinite and altogether
unaccountable. Thus the brief period of his residence at the university
forms an era in its annals, and is characterized by all classes
of people appertaining to it or its dependencies as "that very
extraordinary epoch forming the domination of the Baron Ritzner von
Jung." then of no particular age, by which I mean that it was impossible
to form a guess respecting his age by any data personally afforded. He
might have been fifteen or fifty, and was twenty-one years and seven
months. He was by no means a handsome man--perhaps the reverse. The
contour of his face was somewhat angular and harsh. His forehead was
lofty and very fair; his nose a snub; his eyes large, heavy, glassy,
and meaningless. About the mouth there was more to be observed. The lips
were gently protruded, and rested the one upon the other, after such a
fashion that it is impossible to conceive any, even the most complex,
combination of human features, conveying so entirely, and so singly, the
idea of unmitigated gravity, solemnity and repose.

It will be perceived, no doubt, from what I have already said, that the
Baron was one of those human anomalies now and then to be found, who
make the science of mystification the study and the business of their
lives. For this science a peculiar turn of mind gave him instinctively
t