Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/261

Rh convince him: nothing could determine him, His hesitating accents fell like cold water on the arguments of the rest. The louder and the more flaming grew the torrent of words, the more he doubted, and shook his head, and—hesitated. And it seemed to me that the more this man hesitated, the greater was the degree of importance he assumed in the eyes of his fellow councillors.

Immediately beside him sat another notable personage, who continued almost incessantly to droop his head and gaze upon the floor, then uplift it again, once more to cast it down: he appeared to labour under a most oppressive sense of his own importance, of the importance of town-councils in general, and of the importance of that town-council and meeting, in particular. This man possessed no other talent but the assumption of solemnity; but on this capital, his wisdom passed current everywhere. Though his appearance was anything but inviting—his features being harsh and irregular, his skin uncleanly and pimpled, his clothes indifferent and ill put on, and his voice grating and disagreeable—yet this faculty of solemnity atoned for all: and when he spoke, which he often did in a most