and greenish, with an incomplete mustering of buttons,
drooped about his heavy, bowed shoulders;
while a weather-beaten derby, seemingly unbrushed
for countless, grimy years, completed his forlorn
adornment.

His face was long, with vertical, pallid folds
gathered loosely into a chin frosted with unkempt
silver; his mouth was lipless, close, shadowed by an
overhanging, swollen nose; and, from beneath deep,
troubled brows, pale blue eyes set close together regarded
life skeptically, intently, with appalling
avidity, veiled yet discernible.

He disappeared, clutching the stranger's sleeve,
with an effort at geniality. Simmons' clerk ruefully
tested the weight of a small, heavily nailed
box.

Lettice Hollidew slowly assembled her traveling
effects. It was evident that she wished to say something
to Gordon, for she lingered, patently playing
with her gloves, directing at him bright, nervous
glances from under the straw brim of her hat. But
she was forced to depart in silence, for Buckley Simmons,
in reply to the queries of the cause of his accident,
launched upon a loud, angry explanation of
the obvious aspect of the incident.

"The clumsy yap!" he pointedly exclaimed.

Gordon entered the group of which Buckley was
the hub. "It was too bad to spoil Buck for the

[[33]]

p032 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p033w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p034

v?