reedbuck, the maned and huge-eared roan antelope, gazelle, and
bush-buck, all were here, skull or mask, dominated by the vast head of the
wildebeest, with ponderous sickle-curved horns.

Adams had half completed the tour of the walls when the door of the
library opened and Captain Berselius came in. Tall, black-bearded and
ferocious looking--that was the description of man Adams was prepared to
meet. But Captain Berselius was a little man in a frock-coat, rather worn,
and slippers. He had evidently been in _neglige_ and, to meet the visitor,
slipped into the frock-coat, or possibly he was careless, taken up with
abstractions, dreams, business affairs, plans. He was rather stout, with
an oval, egg-shaped face; his beard, sparse and pointed and tinged with
gray, had originally been light of hue; he had pale blue eyes, and he had
a perpetual smile.

It is to be understood by this that Captain Berselius's smile was, so to
speak, hung on a hair-trigger; there was always a trace of it on his face
round the lips, and in conversation it became accentuated.

At first sight, during your first moments of meeting with Captain
Berselius, you would have said, "What a happy-faced and jolly little
man!"

Adams, completely taken aback by the apparition before him, bowed.

"I have the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Adams, introduced by Dr. Thenard?"
said Captain Berselius, motioning the visitor to a chair. "Pray take a
seat, take a seat--yes----" He took a seat opposite the American, crossed
his legs in a comfortable manner, caressed his chin, and whilst chatting
on general subjects stared full at the newcomer, as though Adams had been
a statue, examining him, without the least insolence, but in that thorough
manner with which a purchaser examines the horse he is about to buy or the
physician of an insurance company a proposer.

It was now that Adams felt he had to deal with no common man in Captain
Berselius.

Never before had he conversed with a person so calmly authoritative, so
perfectly at ease, and so commanding. This little commonplace-looking,
negligently dressed man, talking easily in his armchair, made the spacious
Adams feel small and of little account in the world. Captain Berselius
filled all the space. He was _the_ person in that room; Adams, though he
had personality enough, was nowhere. And now he noticed that the perpetual
smile of the Captain had no relation to mirth or kindliness, it was not
worn as a mask, for Ca