The taller of the two (he was in evening clothes under a light wide-open overcoat) with great presence of mind chucked her under the chin, giving me the view at the same time of a flash of white teeth in his dark, lean face.

The other man was very different; fair, with smooth, ruddy cheeks and burly shoulders.

He was wearing a grey suit, obviously bought ready-made, for it seemed too tight for his powerful frame.
That man was not altogether a stranger to me.

For the last week or so I had been rather on the look-out for him in all the public places where in a provincial town men may expect to meet each other.

I saw him for the first time (wearing that same grey ready-made suit) in a legitimist drawing-room where, clearly, he was an object of interest, especially to the women.