imself on saying at once that he either had
an opinion upon a subject, or had none; and if he chanced to have formed
any judgment he was hot in its support. His intellect was really
profound within the limits he had chosen for his activity, and his
experience of mankind was varied and singular. He was a man who cared
little for detail, except when details tended to elucidate the whole,
for his first impressions were accurate and large. With his strong and
sanguine nature he exhibited a rough frankness appropriate to his
character. He was strong-handed, strong-minded, and strong-tongued; a
man who loved to rule others, and who made no secret of it; impatient of
contradiction when he stated his views, but sure never to assume a
position in argument or in affairs which he did not believe himself
able to maintain against all comers.

But with this appearance of hearty honesty the scientist possessed the
remarkable quality of discretion, not often found in sanguine
temperaments. He loved to understand the secrets of men's lives, and to
feel that if need be he could govern people by main force and wholly
against their will. He could conceal anything, any knowledge he
possessed, any strong passion he felt, with amazing skill. At the very
time when he seemed to be most frankly speaking his mind, when he made
his honest strength appear as open as the day, as though scorning all
concealment and courting inquiry into his motives, he was capable of
completely hiding his real intentions, of professing ignorance in
matters in which he was profoundly versed, of appearing to be as cold as
stone when his heart was as hot as fire. He was a man of violent
passions in love and hate, unforgetting and unforgiving, who never
relented in the pursuit of an object, nor weighed the cruelty of the
means in comparison with the importance of the end. He had by nature a
temperament fitted for conspiracy and planned to disarm suspicion. He
was incomparably superior to Paul Patoff in powers of mind and in the
art of concealment, he was equal to him in the unchanging determination
of his will, but he was by far inferior to him in those external gifts
which charm the world and command social success.

These two remarkable men had met before they found themselves together
under John Carvel's roof, but they did not appear to have been intimate.
It was, indeed, very difficult to imagine what their relations could
have been, for they occasionally seemed to