resting on the floor, the other dangling carelessly. Hardly more than
a year my elder, he bore in his face the indelible marks of a life
vastly different. His features were clear-cut, and undeniably
handsome, with a curl of rare good-humor to his lips and an audacious
sparkle within his dark eyes. His hat, cocked and ornamented in
foreign fashion, lay beside him; and I could not help noting his long
hair, carefully powdered and arranged with a nicety almost conspicuous,
while his clothing was rich in both texture and coloring, and exhibited
many traces of vanity in ribbon and ornament. Within his belt,
fastened by a large metal clasp, he wore a pearl-handled pistol with
long barrel; and a rapier, with richly jewelled hilt, dangled at his
side. Altogether he made a fine figure of a man, and one of a sort I
had never met before.

If he interested me, doubtless I was no less a study to him. I could
see the astonishment in his eyes, after my first entrance, change to
amusement as he gazed. Then he brought a white hand down, with a smart
slap, upon the board beside him.

"By all the saints!" he exclaimed, "but I believe the black was right.
'Tis the face of a gentle, or I know naught of the breed, though the
attire might fool the very elect. Yet, _parbleu_! if memory serves, 't
is scarcely worse than what I wore in Spain."

He swung down upon his feet and faced me, extending one hand with all
cordiality, while lips and eyes smiled pleasantly.

"Monsieur," he said, bowing low, and with a grace of movement quite new
to me, "I bid you hearty welcome to whatsoever of good cheer this
desert may have to offer, and present to you the companionship of