Page:Whyte-Melville--Bones and I.djvu/82

 care as in other matters we take to acquire knowledge, for there is no denying, alas! that those who know them best always seem to respect them least.

"I rose, therefore, from my stall at the first opportunity and turned round to survey the house. Ere I had inspected a quarter of it, my glasses were up, and I will tell you what they showed me—the most perfect face I ever saw. Straight nose, thin and delicately cut, large black eyes, regular eyebrows, faultless chin, terminating a complete oval, the whole set in a frame of jet-black hair. Even my next neighbour, who, from an observation he let fall to a friend, belonged apparently to the Household Troops, could not refrain from ejaculating 'By Jove, she's a ripper!' the moment he caught sight of the object on which my gaze was fixed.

"I saw something else too. I saw that