Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/143

Rh was a part of the secret of his success, as it enabled him to gaze upon two beasts at the same time. Dr. Dustacre had no such obliquity of vision, but looked straightly and fixedly at the object before him.

Mr. Bouncer rose from his easy-chair, and silently returned the silent bow of the other. The Doctor took a chair and brought it to the writing-table, near to Mr. Bouncer, all the while making an eye-study of his appearance and manners. It was such a skilled, professional study, that it might have been called eye art. Mr. Bouncer had again settled himself in his chair, and began to experience the sort of sensation which a bird is supposed to feel when it is being fascinated by a serpent.

Thought the little gentleman to himself, "This is a very rummy-looking cove! I wonder who he is, and why he came into this room, without being shown in by the servant. I don't remember hearing the front-door bell ring; but I half suspect that I was having forty winks. What a peculiar-looking old gentleman! who can he be? By his togs he looks like a parson; white choker, black coat and sit-upons. I daresay he is the rector of the parish, and a great friend of the Squire's. By the way, I remember Smalls telling me he used to read with the rector two hours a day. This is the identical individual, no doubt. I daresay he is like a tame cat, and comes in and out as he likes. What a skull the old bald-pate has got! and how he stares at me!' He fix'd me with his glitt'ring eye.' 'He came, I could not move, for his eye was upon me.' I wonder, by the way, why coves have only one eye in poetry, like Polyphemus and those monoptical parties. This old fellow has two eyes under his gig-lamps, and knows how to use them.