 call, at first view, rather a strange-looking
man; for he is thin, dark, sallow; very foreign of aspect, with shadowy hair
carelessly streaking his forehead: it appears that he spends but little time at
his toilette, or he would arrange it with more taste. He seems unconscious that
his features are fine, that they have a southern symmetry, clearness, regularity
in their chiseling; nor does a spectator become aware of this advantage till he
has examined him well, for an anxious countenance, and a hollow, somewhat
haggard, outline of face disturb the idea of beauty with one of care. His eyes
are large, and grave, and gray; their expression is intent and meditative,
rather searching than soft, rather thoughtful than genial. When he parts his
lips in a smile, his physiognomy is agreeable - not that it is frank or cheerful
even then, but you feel the influence of a certain sedate charm, suggestive,
whether truly or delusively, of a considerate, perhaps a kind nature; of
feelings that may wear well at home; patient, forbearing, possibly faithful
feelings. He is still young - not more than thirty; his stature is tall, his
figure slender. His manner of speaking displeases: he has an outlandish accent,
which, notwithstanding a studied carelessness of pronunciation and diction,
grates on a British, and especially, on a Yorkshire ear.
    Mr. Moore, indeed, was but half a Briton, and scarcely that. He came of a
foreign ancestry by the mother's side, and was himself born, and partly reared,
on a foreign soil. A hybrid in nature, it is probable he had a hybrid's feeling
on many points - patriotism for one; it is likely that he was unapt to attach
himself to parties, to sects, even to climes and customs; it is not impossible
that he had a tendency to isolate his individual person from any community
amidst which his lot might temporarily happen to be thrown, and that he felt it
to be his best wisdom to push the interests of Robert Gérard Moore, to the
exclusion of philanthropic consideration for general interests: with which he
regarded the said Gérard Moore as in a great measure disconnected. Trade was Mr.
Moore's hereditary calling: the Gérards of Antwerp had been merchants for two
centuries back. Once they had been wealthy merchants; but the uncertainties, the
involvements of business had come upon them; disastrous speculations had
loosened by degrees the foundations of their credit; the house had stood on a
tottering base for a dozen years; and at
