He had a long wide-skirted bottle-green coat on, and a bottle-green pair of trousers, and a bottle-green waistcoat.

The Patriarchs were not dressed in bottle-green broadcloth, and yet his clothes looked patriarchal.
He had scarcely left the room, and allowed the ticking to become audible again, when a quick hand turned a latchkey in the house-door, opened it, and shut it.

Immediately afterwards, a quick and eager short dark man came into the room with so much way upon him that he was within a foot of Clennam before he could stop.
'Halloa!' he said.
Clennam saw no reason why he should not say 'Halloa!' too.
'What's the matter ?' said the short dark man.
'I have not heard that anything is the matter,' returned Clennam.
'Where's Mr Casby ?' asked the short dark man, looking about.

'He will be here directly, if you want him.' '_I_ want him ?' said the short dark man.

'Don't you ?' This elicited a word or two of explanation from Clennam, during the delivery of which the short dark man held his breath and looked at him.