He has the house next to mine.

You, I, Roe, and Bickers have the four sides of the Big Square." "Which is Bickers ?" "The man with the black beard--last but one on the other side." Railsford gave a furtive look down the table, and encountered the eyes of Mr Bickers fixed discontentedly on him.
A lightning flash at midnight will often reveal minute details of a scene or landscape which in the ordinary glare of day might pass unnoticed by the observer.

So it was in this sudden chance encounter of glances.

It lasted not a moment, but it was a declaration of war to the knife on one side, hurled back defiantly on the other.
"Not a bad fellow if you don't stroke him the wrong way," said Grover.
"Oh," said Railsford, in a tone which made his friend start.

"Who is beyond him ?" "Lablache, the French master; not very popular, I fancy." And so on, one master after another was pointed out, and Railsford formed his own opinions of each, and began to feel at home with several of them already.