And then he wore moustaches, which somewhat hid the thinness of his mouth.

On the whole, he was not ill-looking; and, as I have said before, he carried with him an air of self-assurance and a confident balance, which in itself gives a grace to a young man.
He was staying at the present time in his uncle's house, during the delicious warmth of the summer,--for, as yet, the month of July was not all past; and his intimate friend, Adolphus Crosbie, who was or was not a mere clerk as my readers may choose to form their own opinions on that matter, was a guest in the house with him.

I am inclined to say that Adolphus Crosbie was not a mere clerk; and I do not think that he would have been so called, even by Lily Dale, had he not given signs to her that he was a "swell." Now a man in becoming a swell,--a swell of such an order as could possibly be known to Lily Dale,--must have ceased to be a mere clerk in that very process.

And, moreover, Captain Dale would not have been Damon to any Pythias of whom it might fairly be said that he was a mere clerk.

Nor could any mere clerk have got himself in either at the Beaufort or at Sebright's.