He was a young laborer with a reddish-brown beard of a week's growth.

He wore corduroy trousers and a linen-sleeved corduroy vest; both, like the hasp and spade, new.

A coarse blue shirt, with a vulgar red-and-orange neckerchief, also new, completed his dress; and, to shield himself from the rain, he held up a silk umbrella with a silver-mounted ebony handle, which he seemed unlikely to have come by honestly.

Miss Wilson felt like a boy caught robbing an orchard, but she put a bold face on the matter and said: "Will you allow us to take shelter here until the rain is over ?" "For certain, your ladyship," he replied, respectfully applying the spade handle to his hair, which was combed down to his eyebrows.
"Your ladyship does me proud to take refuge from the onclemency of the yallovrments beneath my 'umble rooftree." His accent was barbarous; and he, like a low comedian, seemed to relish its vulgarity.

As he spoke he came in among them for shelter, and propped his spade against the wall of the chalet, kicking the soil from his hobnailed blucher boots, which were new.
"I came out, honored lady," he resumed, much at his ease, "to house my spade, whereby I earn my living.