CHAPTER II.
"Leslie." said Mrs.Bell, making the unnecessary feminine twist to get a view of her back hair from the mirror with a hand-glass, "aren't you _delighted ?_ Try to be candid with yourself now, and own that she's tremendously improved." It would not have occurred to anybody but Mrs.Bell to ask Mr.Leslie Bell to be candid with himself.

Candor was written in large letters all over Mr.Leslie Bell's plain, broad countenance.

So was a certain obstinacy, not of will, but of adherence to prescribed principles, which might very well have been the result of living for twenty years with Mrs.Leslie Bell.

Otherwise he was a thick-set man with an intelligent bald head, a fresh-colored complexion, and a well-trimmed gray beard.

Mr.Leslie Bell looked at life with logic, or thought he did, and took it with ease, in a plain way.