"In principle." With his big florid face held between his hands he continued to stare hard, while the dingy little man in spectacles coolly took a drink of beer and stood the glass mug back on the table.

His flat, large ears departed widely from the sides of his skull, which looked frail enough for Ossipon to crush between thumb and forefinger; the dome of the forehead seemed to rest on the rim of the spectacles; the flat cheeks, of a greasy, unhealthy complexion, were merely smudged by the miserable poverty of a thin dark whisker.

The lamentable inferiority of the whole physique was made ludicrous by the supremely self-confident bearing of the individual.

His speech was curt, and he had a particularly impressive manner of keeping silent.
Ossipon spoke again from between his hands in a mutter.
"Have you been out much to-day ?" "No.

I stayed in bed all the morning," answered the other.