been long before the world. It was known of him that he had been
at a good English private school, and it was reported, on the
solitary evidence of one of who had been there as his
schoolfellow, that a rumour was current in the school that his
school bills were paid by an old gentleman who was not related to
him. Thence, at the age of seventeen, he had been sent to a
German university, and at the age of twenty-one had appeared in
London, in a stockbroker's office, where he was soon known as an
accomplished linguist, and as a very clever fellow,--precocious,
not given to many pleasures, apt for work, but considered hardly
trustworthy by employers, not as being dishonest, but as having a
taste for being a master rather than a servant. Indeed his
period of servitude was very short. It was not in his nature to
be active on behalf of others. He was soon active for himself,
and at one time it was supposed that he was making a fortune.
Then it was known that he had left his regular business, and it
was supposed that he had lost all that he had ever made or had
ever possessed. But nobody, not even his own bankers, or his own
lawyer,--not even the old woman who looked after his linen,--
ever really knew the state of his affairs.

He was certainly a handsome man,--his beauty being of a sort
which men are apt to deny and women to admit lavishly. He was
nearly six feet tall, very dark and very thin, with regular well-
cut features, indicating little to the physiognomist unless it be
the great gift of self-possession. His hair was cut short, and
he wore no beard beyond an absolutely black moustache. His teeth
were perfect, in form and in whiteness,--a characteristic which
though it may be a valued item in a general catalogue of personal
attraction, does not generally recommend a man to the unconscious