And he countermarched, and twirled on his heel into his old place, with his back to the fire, and chuckled and asked again—
"How the plague could I be such a fool?"
And after some more of this sort of catechism he began to ruminate oddly once more, and, said he—
"It's plaguy odd, for all that."
And he walked to the window, and, with his face close to the glass, tried in vain to see the stranger again. The bow-window did not command the road far enough to enable him to see any distance; and he stuck his hat on his head, and marched by the bar, through the porch, and, standing upon the road itself, looked shrewdly in the same direction.
But the road makes a bend about there, and between the hedgerows of that wooded country the vista was not far.
With a cheerful air of carelessness, Sir Jekyl returned and tapped on the bar window.
"I say, Mrs. Jones, who's that good-looking young fellow that went out just now?"
"The gentleman in the low-crowned hat, sir, with the gold-headed cane, please?"
"Yes, a tall young fellow, with large dark eyes, and brown hair."