An unexpected sort of man.

Fyne explained to me with precision that he evidently belonged to what is most respectable in the lower middle classes.

He was calm and slow in his speech.

He was wearing a frock- coat, had grey whiskers meeting under his chin, and declared on entering that Mr.de Barral was his cousin.

He hastened to add that he had not seen his cousin for many years, while he looked upon Fyne (who received him alone) with so much distrust that Fyne felt hurt (the person actually refusing at first the chair offered to him) and retorted tartly that he, for his part, had _never_ seen Mr.de Barral, in his life, and that, since the visitor did not want to sit down, he, Fyne, begged him to state his business as shortly as possible.