s. His cheeks and chin
were in the bluest bloom of smooth shaving; his nose was short Roman;
his lips long, thin, and supple, curled up at the corners with a
mildly-humorous smile. His white cravat was high, stiff, and dingy;
the collar, higher, stiffer, and dingier, projected its rigid points on
either side beyond his chin. Lower down, the lithe little figure of the
man was arrayed throughout in sober-shabby black. His frock-coat was
buttoned tight round the waist, and left to bulge open majestically at
the chest. His hands were covered with black cotton gloves neatly
darned at the fingers; his umbrella, worn down at the ferule to the last
quarter of an inch, was carefully preserved, nevertheless, in an oilskin
case. The front view of him was the view in which he looked oldest;
meeting him face to face, he might have been estimated at fifty or more.
Walking behind him, his back and shoulders were almost young enough to
have passed for five-and-thirty. His manners were distinguished by a
grave serenity. When he opened his lips, he spoke in a rich bass
voice, with an easy flow of language, and a strict attention to the
elocutionary claims of words in more than one syllable. Persuasion
distilled from his mildly-curling lips; and, shabby as he was, perennial
flowers of courtesy bloomed all over him from head to foot.

"This is the residence of Mr. Vanstone, I believe?" he began, with a
circular wave of his hand in the direction of the house. "Have I the
honor of addressing a member of Mr. Vanstone's family?"

"Yes," said the plain-spoken Miss Garth. "You are addressing Mr.
Vanstone's governess."

The persuasive man fell back a step--admired Mr. Vanstone's
governess--advanced a step again--and continued the conversation.

"And the two young ladies," he went on, "the two young ladies who were
walking with you are doubtless Mr. Vanstone's daughters? I recognized
the darker of the two, and the elder as I apprehend, by her likeness to
her handsome mother. The younger lady--"

"You are acquainted with Mrs. Vanstone, I suppose?" said Miss Garth,
interrupting the stranger's flow of language, which, all things
considered, was beginning, in her opinion, to flow rather freely. The
stranger acknowledged the interruption by one of his polite bows, and
submerged Miss Garth in his next sentence as if nothing had happened.

"The younger lady," he proceeded, "takes after her father, I presume? I
assure you, her face struck me. Lookin