A Wheel of Fire Author:Arlo Bates Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. Merchant of Venice; iii.—2. THE new comer, who entered the room a moment later, was a singularly handsome man. His hair and beard were golden as ripe ... more »corn, his eyes, a yellow gray. His figure was rather below than above medium height, firmly knit and well shaped. His face had the impress of frequent laughter, showing little of the softening which might be supposed to come from constant contact with life in its saddest phases. Whether this jocund bearing had its origin in a natural insensibility to human woe or in a buoyancy which resisted all depression of circumstances could only be determined by a careful and intimate study of his character, but its existence was at least one of the most striking of his more obvious characteristics. He came forward to the fireside with an air of easy familiarity which was instantly noted by Elsie's shrewd and observant eyes. She detected at a glance that the stranger lacked that nicety of adaptability to his surroundings which comes of a sensitive temperament, reinforced by good breeding;and she knew at once that the new comer was not a man accustomed to circles whose social customs are exacting. As for Damaris, her mind was too fully absorbed with thoughts of her brother to receive consciously any impressions whatever of the personality of the visitor. J- " Do you know," Damaris asked with anxious eagerness, as Dr. Wilson approached accompanied by Wallace, who seemed still somewhat uncertain as to the treatment due to the stranger, " at what time my brother left the retreat ? " " Not accurately," was the reply, given in tones which had a very pleasant crispness in their quality. " He was in his room at two o'clock, but it must have been very soon after that he went out, for I was at my desk writing by three, with my door ...« less