I knew him very well."
"Ye don't say!" His lordship was slightly moved out of an
imperturbability that he had studiously cultivated. He was a young
man of perhaps eight-and-twenty, well above the middle height in
stature and appearing taller by virtue of his exceeding leanness.
He had a thin, pale, rather pleasing hatchet-face, framed in the
curls of a golden periwig, a sensitive mouth and pale blue eyes that
lent his countenance a dreamy expression, a rather melancholy
pensiveness. But they were alert, observant eyes notwithstanding,
although they failed on this occasion to observe the slight change
of colour which his question had brought to Miss Bishop's cheeks
or the suspiciously excessive composure of her answer.
"Ye don't say!" he repeated, and came to lean beside her. "And what
manner of man did you find him?"
"In those days I esteemed him for an unfortunate gentleman."
"You were acquainted with his story?"
"He told it me. That is why I esteemed him - for the calm fortitude
with which he bore adversity.
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