He was a large man with rather heavy features, lit up by alert grey eyes, a big, dome-like cranium, and a manner that was modest almost to diffidence.

He brought his wife, a slim and somewhat stern-featured lady, who, in the domestic sense, kept him in his place with inflexible decision, and worshipped him in his professional capacity, and two pretty, well-dressed, and obviously well-bred daughters.

Their carriage drew up, turned into the drive precisely at four.

Punctuality was the Professor's one and only social vice.
Next came Commander Merrill in a hansom.

This would be one of the very few meetings that he could hope for with his lost beloved--as he now sadly thought of her--before he put H.M.S._Blazer_ into commission, and so punctuality on his part was both natural and excusable.