Alfred Stevens, as he walked behind his young companion, observed
him with a more deliberate survey than he had yet taken. Hitherto,
the young man had challenged but little of his scrutiny. He had
simply noted him for a tall youth, yet in the green, who appeared
of a sulky, retiring nature, and whose looks had seemed to him
on one or more occasions to manifest something like distaste for
himself. The complacency of Stevens, however, was too well grounded
to be much disturbed by such an exhibition. Perhaps, indeed, he
would have derived a malicious sort of satisfaction in making a
presumptuous lad feel his inferiority. He had just that smallness
of spirit which would find its triumph in the success of such a
performance.

He now observed that the youth was well formed, tall, not ungraceful--with
features of singular intelligence, though subdued to the verge of
sadness. His face was pale and thin, his eyes were a little sunken,
and his air, expression, and general outside, denoted a youth of
keen sensibilities, who had suffered some disappointment.

In making this examination, Alfred Stevens was not awakened to
any generous purposes. He designed, in reality, nothing more than
to acquit himself of the duty he had undertaken with the smallest
possible exertion. His own mind was one of that mediocre character
which the heart never informs. His scrutiny, therefore, though it
enabled him to perceive that the young man had qualities of worth,
was not such as to prompt any real curiosity to examine further.
A really superior mind would have been moved to look into these