Now to make his suspicions seem at all reasonable, a motive was
lacking. And that worried the man hugely. He desired most earnestly to
justify his captiousness; and to this end exercised a power of
conscientious observation on his new acquaintances.

Monsieur le Comte de Lorgnes he was disposed to pass at face value, as
an innocuous being, good natured enough but none too brilliant, with
much of the disposition of an overgrown boy and a rather boyish
tendency to admire and imitate in others qualities which he did not
himself possess.

Mr. Phinuit had not returned, so there was no present opportunity to
take further note of him; though Duchemin first inferred from Mr.
Monk's manner, and later learned through a chance remark of his, that
Phinuit was his secretary.

Upon this Mr. Monk Duchemin concentrated close attention, satisfied
that he had here to do with an extraordinary personality, if not one
unique.

Mr. Whitaker Monk might have been any age between thirty-five and
fifty-five, so non-committal was that lantern-jawed countenance of a
droll, with its heavy, black, eloquent eyebrows, its high and narrow
forehead merging into an extensive bald spot fringed with greyish hair,
its rather small, blue, illegible eyes, its high-bridged nose and
prominent nostrils, its wide and thin-lipped mouth, its rather
startling pallor. Taller by a head than anybody in the room except
Duchemin, his figure was remarkably thin, yet not ill-proportioned.
Neither was Mr. Monk ill at ease or ungraceful in his actions. Clothed