The young man was handsome, and not with that vulgar handsomeness which is fairly common among the better kind of shop-walkers and counter-keepers.

He had rather long black hair, which arranged itself in silky ripples about a face of perfectly clear, though rather dark, complexion.

When he smiled, as he frequently did, the effect was very pleasant.

He spoke, too, with that musical intonation which is always more or less suggestive of musical thought.

He did not seem by any means ideally adapted to the place he occupied here, yet filled it without suspicion of constraint or uneasiness: there was nothing in him to make one suppose that he had ever been accustomed to a better sphere of life.
He lived in the house above the shop, and had done so for about two years; previously he had held a like position in a more modest establishment.