e room,
who were certainly not of the ordinary type, and will need a few words
of description; for both were destined, as my story will show, to have
considerable influence over my life.

I will try to describe the more striking of the two first.

He was a young man. Not more than thirty-five. He was fairly tall, well
built, and had evidently enjoyed the education and advantages of a man
of wealth. His hair was black as the raven's wings, and was brushed in a
heavy mass horizontally across his forehead. His eyes were of a colour
that did not accord with his black hair and swarthy complexion. They
were of an extremely light grey, and were tinted with a kind of green.
They were placed very close together, and, the bridge of the nose being
narrow, they appeared sometimes as if only one eye looked upon you. The
mouth was well cut, the lips rather thin, which often parted, revealing
a set of pearly white teeth. There was something positively fascinating
about the mouth, and yet it betrayed malignity--cruelty. He was
perfectly self-possessed, stood straight, and had a soldier-like
bearing. I instinctively felt that this was a man of power, one who
would endeavour to make his will law. His movements were perfectly
graceful, and from the flutter among the young ladies when he entered, I
judged he had already spent some little time with them, and made no
slight impression.

His companion was much smaller, and even darker than he was. His every
feature indicated that he was not an Englishman. With small wiry limbs,
black, restless, furtive eyes, rusty black hair, and a somewhat
unhealthy colour in his face, he formed a great contrast to the man I
have just tried to describe. I did not like him. He seemed to carry a
hundred secrets around with him, and each one a deadly weapon he would
some day use against any who might offend him. He, too, gave you the
idea of power, but it was the power of a subordinate.

Instinctively I felt that I should have more to do with these men than
with the rest of the company present.

Although I have used a page of good paper in describing them, I was only
a very few seconds in seeing and realizing what I have written.

Both walked up to us, and both smiled on Mrs. Temple, whereupon she
introduced them. The first had a peculiar name; at least, so it seemed
to me.

"Mr. Herod Voltaire--Mr. Justin Blake," she said; and instantly we were
looking into each other's eyes, I feeling a strange kind o