ng on either side, so that two persons
could not well walk abreast. Lionel was some paces in advance, Darrell
walking slow. The stranger followed at a distance: once or twice he
quickened his pace, is if resolved to overtake Darrell; then apparently
his mind misgave him, and he again fell back.

There was something furtive and sinister about the man. Little could be
seen of his face, for he wore a large hat of foreign make, slouched deep
over his brow, and his lips and jaw were concealed by a dark and full
mustache and beard. As much of the general outline of the countenance
as remained distinguishable was nevertheless decidedly handsome; but
a complexion naturally rich in colour seemed to have gained the heated
look which comes with the earlier habits of intemperance before it fades
into the leaden hues of the later.

His dress bespoke pretension to a certain rank: but its component
parts were strangely ill-assorted, out of date, and out of repair;
pearl-coloured trousers, with silk braids down their sides; brodequins
to match,--Parisian fashion three years back, but the trousers shabby,
the braiding discoloured, the brodequins in holes. The coat-once a
black evening dress-coat--of a cut a year or two anterior to that of the
trousers; satin facing,-cloth napless, satin stained. Over all, a sort
of summer travelling-cloak, or rather large cape of a waterproof silk,
once the extreme mode with the lions of the Chaussee d'Autin whenever
they ventured to rove to Swiss cantons or German spas; but which, from
a certain dainty effeminacy in its shape and texture, required the
minutest elegance in the general costume of its wearer as well as the
cleanliest purity in itself. Worn by this traveller, and well-nigh worn
out too, the cape became a finery mournful as a tattered pennon over a
wreck.

Yet in spite of this dress, however unbecoming, shabby, obsolete,
a second glance could scarcely fail to note the wearer as a man
wonderfully well-shaped,--tall, slender in the waist, long of limb,
but with a girth of chest that showed immense power; one of those rare
figures that a female eye would admire for grace, a recruiting sergeant
for athletic strength.

But still the man's whole bearing and aspect, even apart from the
dismal incongruities of his attire, which gave him the air of a beggared
spendthrift, marred the favourable effect that physical comeliness in
itself produces. Difficult to describe how,--difficult to say why,--