black,--the pantaloons tight at the calf and ankle, and there forming a
loose gaiter over thick shoes, buckled high at the instep; an old cloak,
lined with red, was thrown over one shoulder, though the day was sultry;
a quaint, red, outlandish umbrella, with a carved brass handle, was
thrust under one arm, though the sky was cloudless: a profusion of raven
hair, in waving curls that seemed as fine as silk, escaped from the sides
of a straw hat of prodigious brim; a complexion sallow and swarthy, and
features which, though not without considerable beauty to the eye of the
artist, were not only unlike what we fair, well-fed, neat-faced
Englishmen are wont to consider comely, but exceedingly like what we are
disposed to regard as awful and Satanic,--to wit, a long hooked nose,
sunken cheeks, black eyes, whose piercing brilliancy took something
wizard-like and mystical from the large spectacles through which they
shone; a mouth round which played an ironical smile, and in which a
physiognomist would have remarked singular shrewdness, and some
closeness, complete the picture. Imagine this figure, grotesque,
peregrinate, and to the eye of a peasant certainly diabolical; then perch
it on the stile in the midst of those green English fields, and in sight
of that primitive English village; there let it sit straddling, its long
legs dangling down, a short German pipe emitting clouds from one corner
of those sardonic lips, its dark eyes glaring through the spectacles full
upon the parson, yet askant upon Lenny Fairfield. Lenny Fairfield looked
exceedingly frightened.

"Upon my word, Dr. Riccabocca," said Mr. Dale, smiling, "you come in good
time to solve a very nice question in casuistry;" and herewith the parson
explained the case, and put the question, "Ought Lenny Fairfield to have
the sixpence, or ought he not?"

"Cospetto!" said the doctor, "if the hen would but hold her tongue,