He proved to be a fascinating person; handsome, affable, a ready talker
upon all matters of interest--though sarcastic, withal--and fond of boys.
True, he had not long hair like the little boy's father. Indeed, he had
not much hair at all, except a sort of curtain of black curls extending
from ear to ear at the back of his bare, pink head. But the little boy had
to admit that Cousin Bill J.'s moustache was even grander than his
father's. It fell in two graceful festoons far below his chin, with a
little eyelet curled into each tip, and, like the ringlets, it showed the
blue-black lustre of the crow's wing. In the full sunlight, at times, it
became almost a royal purple.

Later observation taught the little boy that this splendid hue was applied
at intervals by Cousin Bill J. himself. He did it daintily with a small
brush, every time the moustache began to show a bit rusty at the roots;
Bernal never failed to be present at this ceremony; nor to resolve that
his own moustache, when it came, should be as scrupulously cared for--not
left, like Dr. Crealock's, for example, to become speckled and gray.

Cousin Bill J.'s garments were as splendid as his character. He had an
overcoat and cap made from a buffalo hide; his high-heeled boots had
maroon tops set with purple crescents; his watch-charm was a large gold
horse in full gallop; his cravat was an extensive area of scarlet satin in
the midst of which was caught a precious stone as large as a robin's egg;
and in smoking, which his physician had prescribed, he used a superb
meerschaum cigar-holder, all tinted a golden brown, upon which lightly
perched a carven angel dressed like those that ride the big white horse in
the circus.

But aside from these mere matters of form, Cousin Bill J. was a man with a