.

Extraordinary Scene between Fenton and the Stranger.
The character of Fenton was one that presented an extraordinary variety of phases.

With the exception of the firmness and pertinacity with which he kept the mysterious secret of his origin and identity--that is, if he himself knew them, he was never known to maintain the same moral temperament for a week together.

Never did there exist a being so capricious and unstable.

At one time, you found him all ingenuousness and candor; at another, no earthly power could extort a syllable of truth from his lips.