The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 195: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 REYNOLDS’ WORKS and was thin upon the crown. His whiskers, which were large, were a shade darker, yet quite gray at the roots. Handsome he might be considered, so far as the profile was concerned, but he had a cold, stern look that was almost saturnine, and which chilled the beholder. His complexion appeared to be made up of sallowness bronzed with the sun. As for his age, it was by no means easy to fix it; he might be fifty, — he might even be several years younger or older, but that which might have led to the former inference was that he possessed a fine set of teeth which were well pre- served. He was dressed in black, and over his shoulders there hung loosely a dark blue cloak. Though it was only the middle of October, the weather was still warmly genial, and the landlady therefore concluded he was an invalid or had lately been one, and thus sought to protect himself against the chance of taking cold. From the result of her survey, she could not exactly make up her mind as to whether she liked his appearance or not. He had the air of a gentleman, but then that cold, severe, stern look of his troubled and be- wildered her. Besides, was not the Polish count with an awful long name, and who turned out to be no count at all, but only a wild Irish adventurer, and who had run away five pounds in her debt, — was not he a very gentlemanly man? While, on the other hand, did she not decline to receive as a lodger an elderly person, merely on account of his haughtily stern look, and had not this very individual lived for the last ten years with Mrs. Sifkin over the way, paying his rent as regularly as clockwork, and never ventur- ing a hint that his tea and sugar disappeared rapidly, or that somehow or another something was always wanted, though a store of it had been laid in only a day or two back? Therefore, it was no wonder if worthy Mrs. Macaulay was puzzled how to act in the present instance, and that the tall gentleman’s countenance was one which seemed to defy her skill as a physiognomist. ‘I see that you have apartments to let,’’ he said, and the mildness of his voice, rich however in its sonorous har- mony, and tinctured with a deep mournfulness, almost made her start, for she had expected that nought but the sternest accents could issue from those lips, ‘“‘'Yes, sir,’ she responded, cheering up considerably, and again putting on the invariable simper of an obliging (E(0) Gomichboo <“S