The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-30
TWO OR =7[E[R[5Lg GEM
G7[L[gNl[5I1 UNI VV[H]lT[E,fg
CHAPTERS from an Old Manuscript
BY W. :. CHRISTIAN.

: RI RIS INV
nothing to do with the case: the fact is
the only Thing to he considered. Certainly
mad Monsieur Freckleworth been mind.
reader he could not have obtruded (but
il hardly seemed precisely obtrusion "a
the two deVil-may-care collegians) his
Russian remark at a moment more luck
ilv for him. For. given two newly
cd young men with money in their purses,
toiletted cXquisitely with Paris be-
fore them and BASES ale within them. an
artist of I'reckleworth's class might find
an easy opening even were his Introduce
ory remark less timely than his reference
10 this little Russian princess. Yet Mon
Sieur Frcckleworth should not have
thought that all the things already said
touching his front tooth, in spite of the
seeming rollicking indifference of
the tourists had not been
flashed through their minds
in the manner that has been
related. 1t may be set down that Mon
sieur Freckleworth was certainly not I'M
der forty-three, and. more, probably over
fifty. Yet one could not say His neck
was fifty-fiye: his th9oat-wear and throat
effects were not day over forty. There
was a charming farewell, in the sense of
the farewell of light morning wines. about
the snugness of his coat and vest about
his chest and shoulders about the peep
of his shirt front almost covered by the
thin silkish, dark-blue white dotted tie
whose wings and ends were spread out
and styliShly dropped in a way of which
only women and French people know per-
fectly. Yet one would not wholly put
away thoughts of Il lack of flesh about
the shOulder-blades and a lack of flesh
fulneSs about the upper chest. There was
a sense of shrinkage underneath this
plumpness of dress. His trousers were Of
stylish cut and of the light, expensive
forenoon material of his sack-suit. Yet
i'll this matter also, a despicable diver
sion to be sure, sense of something
wintered, of bleak thighs whose health or
stinginess of flesh determine to a large
degree the physical plight of men, A
body, withal stripped of its bloom by
some kind of winter effects, if bodies
should be spoken of after this high-fown
fashion. So that in spite of the close pro-
lection afforded by thick white linen col
lar of exactly the fit, angle and height, one
thought of a neck skinned yellowish,
and wrinkled like the dead scottish aged
wrinkle of a rusty-coat apple-skin when
the apple has been kept long in a warm
room. And yet there was tolerable full
ness above the collar that held the head
up and fast as if corsetted about the
neck and there was as much left Of
flush as might at first glance be expected
OF man of the world who had done the
decent thing by his his wines and cigars
But. par parenthese, TO get rid of this fact
forever. Monsieur Freckleworth neither
touched any intoxicant nor INDUCED in
tobacco in any form. The nose of Mon
sieur Freckleworth was of exceedingly
good and straight shape. unless the nostril
ori6ce was so large as foolishly perhaps
to suggest the snoutish and uncanny.
His eyes were of that kind,
somewhat seen in this wearing
and weary world, which need treatment
in the morning, just as the woman with
dark crimson rash, or inhamed some
thing bout her cheeks prepares them with
powder and other things before trotting
them out in the vanity fair of vicious
eyes and wicked tongues. His eyes had
been as perfectly treated as his nails
which were perfect, but one felt that they
were the eyes that gather through the
neight-hours little pin-head crystals of
old bachelor rheumabout the outer corners
whtish and no bigger than the head of
pin. All these disa greeable things
must be pigeon-holed with those little
mealy fecks that in some other faces run
riot with otherwise good compilations.
Perhaps such things should not be spo-
ken of, and yet it were unjust to the
personality of Monsieur Frcckleworth and
contrary to the truthfulness of this tale
to omit even so minute a mention of
this, for some reasons, inexplicable strang-
er. To pursue these eyes a bit further,
they might be dismissed by some with
the general term of blue" and yet this
would not adequately describe the eye OF
! Monsieur FrecklewOrth. 1t was not
bear-blue exactly, rich deep whortle-
berry blue, never. 1t may have been
fsh-eye blue, having the open coldness OF
the fsh-eye, and furthermore resembling
the fish-eye from having an appearance of
largeness though truthfully it was not
comparatively large. This appearance
rested perhaps upon the open-like look
/ that one sees in a shad's blue eye after
! he has been turned over on his side for
! half hour in the sun. Certainly the illml-
ness of this peculiar blGe might thus be
recalled, but there was another quality
| to the blue besides this lightishness and
! tflminess this jellyish blue AS of king
crabs blood, there was some kind of deep
! keen light trying to struggle through.
! This may have been caused by the sharp
/ very small weIl-defined black pupils. The
/ large rim of blue that circles the pea-llke
white pupil of a King snakes eye may
! give a better idea of the mingling of
watery gloom with a latent CLINT, with
| the difference of effect produced upon
| blue Of a black and white pupil respect
! lively What benefit may arise from the
black pupil belonged justly to Monsieur
! Freckleworth. but beyond that the shad
and the King snake will have to divide
! honOrs with him in the matter Of his eye.
! His moustache grew out from the upper
part of the upper lip, the moistened edges
| being hairless: and fell at the corners,
a sad moustache of quite dark pumpkin
! shade. His hair was of darker pump
| kim wherein the green was all the more
missed in the blue of his eye. But ne
was faultlessly dressed, sat we'll and
| leaned forward with soft attenuated
| hands upon one another resting on the
! head of his walking cane in that gentle
way which hints at refinement as so many
other trifles do. The conversation, or
course, all the while had been going, about
| the little princess, about Paris, about
many things when she turned blue and