In ten minutes we were very good friends, talking pleasantly of all
sorts of things, though Forrester had resumed his recumbent posture, and
I could not help fearing it was only a strong effort of politeness or
sense of duty which enabled him always to answer at the right time.

Before long we heard the clatter of horses' hoofs and the rattle of
steel scabbards, and I looked out at the squadrons defiling into the
barrack-yard. My eye fell upon Livingstone at once: it was not difficult
to distinguish him, for few, if any, among those troopers, picked from
the flower of all the counties north of the Humber, could compare with
him for length of limb and breadth of shoulder. I felt proud of him, as
the hero of my boyhood, looking at him there, on his great black
charger, square and steadfast as the keep of a castle.

His servant spoke to him as he dismounted. I saw his features soften and
brighten in an instant; in five seconds he was in the room, and the
light was on his face still--I like to think of it--the light of a
frank, cordial welcome, as he griped my hand.

He was changed, certainly, but for the better. The features, which in
early youth had been too rugged and strongly marked, harmonized
perfectly with the vast proportions of a frame now fully developed,
though still lean in the flanks as a wolf-hound. The stern expression
about his mouth was more decided and unvarying than ever--an effect
which was increased by the heavy mustache that, dense as a Cuirassier's
of the Old Guard, fell over his lip in a black cascade. It was the face
of one of those stone Crusaders who look up at us from their couches in
the Round Church of the Temple.