sort of intimacy. The thick eyebrows of the Fleming almost covered his
eyes; but by raising them a little he could flash out a lucid,
penetrating, powerful glance, the glance of men habituated to silence,
and to whom the phenomenon of the concentration of inward forces has
become familiar. His thin lips, vertically wrinkled, gave him an air
of indescribable craftiness. The lower part of his face bore a vague
resemblance to the muzzle of a fox, but his lofty, projecting
forehead, with many lines, showed great and splendid qualities and a
nobility of soul, the springs of which had been lowered by experience
until the cruel teachings of life had driven it back into the farthest
recesses of this most singular human being. He was certainly not an
ordinary miser; and his passion covered, no doubt, extreme enjoyments
and secret conceptions.

"What is the present rate of Venetian sequins?" he said abruptly to
his future apprentice.

"Three-quarters at Brussels; one in Ghent."

"What is the freight on the Scheldt?"

"Three sous parisis."

"Any news at Ghent?"

"The brother of Lieven d'Herde is ruined."

"Ah!"

After giving vent to that exclamation, the old man covered his knee