Six months ago he had gone out with Buckland to the country-house and passed an afternoon there, making at the time no very favourable impression on his hostess.

He was not of the young men who easily insinuate themselves into ladies' affections: his exterior was against him, and he seemed too conscious of his disadvantages in that particular.

Mrs.Warricombe found it difficult to shape a few civil phrases for the acceptance of the saturnine student.

Sidwell, repelled and in a measure alarmed by his bilious countenance, could do no more than grant him her delicately gloved fingers.

Peak, for his part, had nothing to say.