CHAPTER IV.
Lord Robert was neither very ugly nor misshapen. Yet, standing beside Colonel Wybrowe that evening, the contrast was disastrous to the former. His sandy head reached to the ex-Guardsman's shoulder. His own shoulders were narrow; he wore a pince-nez, and had an upper lip of inordinate length, which he sought ineffectually to clothe with a sparse brushwood. It had the effect of a few hairs from his eyebrows which had got accidentally displaced. His features were not amiss; but he had a way of snapping at his words, and, when caught, holding them as it were in a vice between his thin lips, apparently afraid that they would escape again. His manner, though abrupt, and his voice were those of a perfect gentleman; but they were without charm. And yet he talked well; too well, some people thought. As a debater, he was said to possess great argumentative ability. Perhaps he was too ready to employ this gift to be very popular. Men were apt to call him "a prig;" women did not find him light in hand. He was not much more conceited, and was unquestionably cleverer, than most young men of his standing; and yet socially he was a failure. Why? No one could say exactly. He was kind, though dictatorial, and had many high and
