A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
      A full assurance given by lookes,
    Continuall comfort in a face,
      The lineaments of Gospell-bookes;
    I trowe that countenance cannot lie
    Whose thoughts are legible in the eie.

Notwithstanding the disadvantages of the fashion, in the mechanical pursuits to which he had hitherto devoted his life, he wore, like Milton’s Adam, his wavy hair down to his shoulders.  In his youth, it had been thick and curling; now it was thinner and straighter, yet curled where it lay.  His hands were small, with the taper fingers that indicate the artist, while his thumb was that of the artizan, square at the tip, with the first joint curved a good deal back.  That they were hard and something discoloured was not for Dorothy to wonder at, when she remembered what she had both heard and seen of his occupations.

I may here mention that what aided Dorothy much in the interpretation of lord Herbert’s countenance and the understanding of his character—­for it was not on this first observation of him that she could discover all I have now set down—­and tended largely to the development of the immense reverence she conceived for him, was what she saw of his behaviour to his father one evening not long after, when, having been invited to the marquis’s table, she sat nearly opposite him at supper.  With a willing ear and ready smile for every one who addressed him, notably courteous where all were courteous, he gave chief observance, amounting to an almost tender homage, to his father.  His thoughts seemed to wait upon him with a fearless devotion.  He listened intently to all his jokes, and laughed at them heartily, evidently enjoying them even when they were not very good; spoke to him with profound though easy respect; made haste to hand him whatever he seemed to want, preventing Scudamore; and indeed conducted himself like a dutiful youth, rather than a man over forty.  Their confident behaviour, wherein the authority of the one and the submission of the other were acknowledged with co-relative love, was beautiful to behold.

When husband and wife had conferred for a while, the former stretched on a settee embroidered by the skilful hands of the latest-vanished countess, his mother, and the latter seated near him on a narrow tall-backed chair, mending her lace, there came a pause in their low-toned conversation, and his lordship looking up seemed anew to become aware of the presence of Dorothy.

‘Well, cousin,’ he said, ’how have you fared since we half-saw each other a fortnight ago?’

‘I have fared well indeed, my lord, I thank you,’ said Dorothy, ’as your lordship may judge, knowing whom I serve.  In two short weeks my lady loads me with kindness enough to requite the loyalty of a life.’

’Look you, cousin, that I should believe such laudation of any less than an angel?’ said his lordship with mock gravity.

‘No, my lord,’ answered Dorothy.