for which he now studied his subject, while he waited
patiently for him to continue, "Silas Lapham is a fine type
of the successful American. He has a square, bold chin,
only partially concealed by the short reddish-grey beard,
growing to the edges of his firmly closing lips.
His nose is short and straight; his forehead good,
but broad rather than high; his eyes blue, and with a light
in them that is kindly or sharp according to his mood.
He is of medium height, and fills an average arm-chair
with a solid bulk, which on the day of our interview was
unpretentiously clad in a business suit of blue serge.
His head droops somewhat from a short neck, which does
not trouble itself to rise far from a pair of massive
shoulders."

"I don't know as I know just where you want me to begin,"
said Lapham.

"Might begin with your birth; that's where most of us begin,"
replied Bartley.

A gleam of humorous appreciation shot into Lapham's
blue eyes.

"I didn't know whether you wanted me to go quite so far
back as that," he said. "But there's no disgrace in
having been born, and I was born in the State of Vermont,
pretty well up under the Canada line--so well up, in fact,
that I came very near being an adoptive citizen; for I
was bound to be an American of SOME sort, from the word