“What is your business with Miss Mordaunt?” I asked, advancing towards the intruder.
“A stranger here?” he answered, with an expression of surprise; “I thought they never had visitors now.”
“I think the manner of your entrance is much more astonishing, and I am the person surprised.”
“Well, yes, my entrance is somewhat irregular,” he replied, in the most familiar style possible; “however, Mr. Unknown, I am neither a thief nor a housebreaker. I have entered in this way because I wished no one but Francis to know of my arrival, and I was sure I should find her here; but, now I am here, allow me to rest myself whilst I reflect a little upon the best means of obtaining an interview with her.”
And he threw himself at full length on the old sofa, which creaked under his weight.
“Ah! ah!” he continued, examining the walls, “the family portraits are gone—eaten away, no doubt, by the moths and the damp.”
It was quite clear to me the stranger was not here for the first time. Though his manners were free, there was something gentlemanly in his personal appearance. Still his dress was fantastic. He wore a short velvet jacket with metal buttons, and a silk handkerchief loosely tied around his neck; tight trousers of a grey pearl colour, and polished riding-boots with spurs, and a soft felt hat.
“You’ve got nothing to drink here?” he asked, after a pause of some minutes. “I have ridden for three hours, and my throat is almost choked with sand and dust.”
He spoke Dutch with a foreign accent. His age seemed to be about fifty, though he might be younger. His lively, active features were never at rest for a moment; his greenish-grey eyes, the fine wrinkles on his high sunburnt forehead, and the paleness of his cheeks, all marked him as the adventurer endued with strong passions—an impression that was increased by his thick-set face, large nose, and the tufted mustachios hanging over his thick, sensual lips. I could not refuse him a glass of water, unwelcome as I found his presence. As I handed it to him I said—
“You seem to know this house well.”