He had gone away a backward lad of seventeen; he returned a young man of twenty.

His slim figure had now acquired strength and grace, and had increased in stature to the medium height.

The small regular features, which he was supposed to have inherited from his mother, were rounded and filled out, without having lost their remarkable delicacy of form.

His beard was still in its infancy; and nascent lines of whisker traced their modest way sparely down his cheeks.

His gentle, wandering brown eyes would have looked to better advantage in a woman's face--they wanted spirit and firmness to fit them for the face of a man.