one of those rural districts of Western Pennsylvania which breed such
strange and sturdy characters. But of this special neighbourhood, its
inhabitants, and its industries, I knew nothing, nor was I likely to
become acquainted with it so long as I remained in the solitude I have
described.

But these impressions and these thoughts--if thoughts they
were--presently received a check. A loud "Halloo!" rose from somewhere
in the mist, followed by a string of muttered imprecations, which
convinced me that the person now attempting to approach the house was
encountering some of the many difficulties which had beset me in the
same undertaking a few minutes before.

I therefore raised my voice and shouted out, "Here! This way!" after
which I sat still and awaited developments.

There was a huge clock in one of the corners, whose loud tick filled up
every interval of silence. By this clock it was just ten minutes to
eight when two gentlemen--I should say men, and coarse men at
that--crossed the open threshold and entered the house.

Their appearance was more or less noteworthy--unpleasantly so, I am
obliged to add. One was red-faced and obese; the other was tall, thin,
and wiry, and showed as many seams in his face as a blighted apple.
Neither of the two had anything to recommend him either in appearance or
address, save a certain veneer of polite assumption as transparent as it
was offensive. As I listened to the forced sallies of the one and the
hollow laugh of the other, I was glad that I was large of frame and
strong of arm, and used to all kinds of men and--brutes.

As these two newcomers seemed no more astonished at my presence than the
man I had met at the gate, I checked the question which instinctively
rose to my lips, and with a simple bow--responded to by a more or less
familiar nod from either--accepted the situation with all the
_sang-froid_ the occasion seemed to demand. Perhaps this was wise,
perhaps it was not; there was little opportunity to judge, for the start
they both gave as they encountered the eyes of the picture before
mentioned drew my attention to a consideration of the different ways in
which men, however similar in other respects, express sudden and
unlooked-for emotion. The big man simply allowed his astonishment,
dread, or whatever the feeling was which moved him, to ooze forth in a
cold and deathly perspiration which robbed his cheeks of colour, and
cast a bluish shadow over his narrow and re