Bower was clearly distinguishable by his personal importance and the
_ennui_, not to be disguised, with which he listened to the opening
sentences of the lecture. He leaned against the desk behind him, and
carefully sharpened the point of his pencil. He was a large man with a
spade-shaped beard; his forehead was narrow, and owed its appearance of
height to incipient baldness; his eyes were small and shrewd. He
habitually donned his suit of black for these meetings. At the works,
where he held a foreman's position, he was in good repute: for years he
had proved himself skilful, steady, abundantly respectful to his
employers. In private life he enjoyed the fame of a petty capitalist;
since his marriage, thirty years ago, he and his wife had made it the
end of their existence to put by money, with the result that his
obsequiousness when at work was balanced by the blustering independence
of his leisure hours. The man was a fair instance of the way in which
prosperity affects the average proletarian; all his better
qualities--honesty, perseverance, sobriety--took an ignoble colour from
the essential vulgarity of his nature, which would never have so
offensively declared itself if ill fortune had kept him anxious about
his daily bread. Formerly Egremont had been impressed by his
intelligent manner; closer observation had proved to him of how little
worth this intelligence was, in its subordination to a paltry
character. Bower regarded himself as the originator of this course of
lectures; through all his obsequiousness it was easy to see that he
deemed his co-operation indispensable to the success of the project. At
first, as was natural, Egremont had sometimes seemed to address words
specially to him; of late he had purposely avoided doing so, and Bower
began to feel that his services lacked recognition.

The other, of whom there has been casual mention, was Joseph Bunce. Of
spare frame and with hollow cheeks which suggested insufficiency of
diet, he yet had far more of manliness in his appearance than the
portly Bower. You divined in him independence enough, and of worthier
origin than that which secretly inflated his neighbour. His features
were at first sight by no means pleasing; their coarseness was
undeniable, but familiarity revealed a sensitive significance in the
irregular nose, the prominent lips, the small chin and long throat.
Egremont had now and then caught a light in his eyes which was warranty
for more than h