n was well
made, tall and symmetrical. His face was martial and expressive. His
complexion was of a rich dark brown; his eye was grey, large, and
restless--his hair thin, and dishevelled. His carriage was very erect;
his coat, which was rather seedy, was close buttoned to his chin. His
movements were quick and impetuous, and seemed to obey the slightest
sound, whether of his own, or of the voices of others. He approached
the company with the manner of an old acquaintance; certainly, with
that of a man who had always been conversant with the best society.
His ease was unobtrusive,--a polite deference invariably distinguishing
his deportment whenever he had occasion to address the ladies. Still,
he spoke as one having authority. There was a lordly something in his
tones,--an emphatic assurance in his gesture,--that seemed to settle
every question; and, after a little while, I found that, hereafter, if
I played on any fiddle at all, in that presence, it was certainly not
to be the first. Emmeline and Susannah had ears for me no longer.
There was a something of impatience in the manner of the former
whenever I spoke as if I had only interrupted much pleasanter sounds;
and, even Susannah, the meek Susannah, put down her Coleridge upon a
stool, and seemed all attention, only for the imposing stranger.

The effect upon the old man was scarcely less agreeable. Col.
Nelson,--so was the stranger called--had come to see about the purchase
of his upper mill-house tract--a body of land containing some four
thousand acres, the sale of which was absolutely necessary to relieve
him from certain incumbrances. From the conversation which he had
already had with his visitor, it appeared that the preliminaries would
be of easy adjustment, and Squire Owens was in the best of all possible
humours. It was nothing but Col. Nelson,--Col. Nelson. The girls did
not seem to need this influence, though they evidently perceived it;
and, in the course of the first half hour after his introduction, I
felt myself rapidly becoming de trop. The stranger spoke in passionate
bursts,--at first in low tones,--with halting, hesitating manner, then,
as if the idea were fairly grasped, he dilated into a torrent of
utterance, his voice rising with his thought, until he started from his
chair and confronted the listener. I cannot deny that there was a
richness in his language, a warmth and colour in his thought, which
fascinated while it startled me