"
"But how shall I know them?" inquired the clergyman.
"Know them!" cried his friend; "why, the Prince is the finest
gentleman in Europe, the only living creature who looks like a
king; and as for Jack Vandeleur, if you can imagine Ulysses at
seventy years of age, and with a sabre-cut across his face, you
have the man before you! Know them, indeed! Why, you could pick
either of them out of a Derby day!"
Rolles eagerly hurried to the dining-room. It was as his friend
had asserted; it was impossible to mistake the pair in question.
Old John Vandeleur was of a remarkable force of body, and obviously
broken to the most difficult exercises. He had neither the
carriage of a swordsman, nor of a sailor, nor yet of one much
inured to the saddle; but something made up of all these, and the
result and expression of many different habits and dexterities.
His features were bold and aquiline; his expression arrogant and
predatory; his whole appearance that of a swift, violent,
unscrupulous man of action; and his copious white hair and the deep
sabre-cut that traversed his nose and temple added a note of
savagery to a head already remarkable and menacing in itself.
In his companion, the Prince of Bohemia, Mr. Rolles was astonished
to recognise the gentleman who had recommended him the study of
Gaboriau. Doubtless Prince Florizel, who rarely visited the club,
of which, as of most others, he was an honorary member, had been
waiting for John Vandeleur when Simon accosted him on the previous
evening.
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