comfortable circumstances. He was unknown not only to "mine host,"
but to every one present; having, as he informed them in the ordinary
flow of conversation, but just arrived in town, where he had business
to transact which might detain him for a few days, or possibly
longer. This information had been volunteered before the arrival of
the soldier; so that when the latter had taken his seat, he was
literally a greater stranger as to the name or intentions of the
hook-nosed gentleman than any one present--the former having been
communicated to the landlord as Philip Greaves, and the latter, as
already intimated, quite freely disclosed during the natural flow of
the conversation in which he had taken and still took part.

Perhaps there were no two beings on earth so dissimilar in every
relation, as were he and the red coat who now ensconsed himself in
one of the chairs, and accepted the invitation to take a friendly
glass with the stranger. He, humble as the rank he bore in the
service, was a young man of most prepossessing appearance and
excellent address. His figure, although slight, was beautifully
symmetrical and finely knit. In stature he was about five feet eleven
inches, and was apparently as agile as a leopard. The whole volume of
his heart was laid open in his broad, manly brow and clear dark eyes;
and his laughter rang out now and then, at the brilliant wit or
searching sarcasm of his neighbor, in such pure and joyous tones, as
to be infectious even amongst those who were paying but little
attention to what had provoked it. He could not have numbered more
than twenty-five or twenty-six summers; and it was almost painful, in
the presence of such manly beauty and so light a heart, to dwell on
the fact, that the possessor of both, was in absolute slavery, how
carelessly soever he wore his shackles. While both these individuals
differed the one from the other to the extent already mentioned, the