ays assigned to a

passenger by the mail, and passengers by the mail being always

heavily wrapped up from head to foot, the room had the odd

interest for the establishment of the Royal George, that although

but one kind of man was seen to go into it, all kinds and varieties

of men came out of it. Consequently, another drawer, and two

porters, and several maids and the landlady, were all loitering by

accident at various points of the road between the Concord and

the coffee-room, when a gentleman of sixty, formally dressed in a

brown suit of clothes, pretty well worn, but very well kept, with

large square cuffs and large flaps to the pockets, passed along on

his way to his breakfast.

The coffee-room had no other occupant, that forenoon, than the

gentleman in brown. His breakfast-table was drawn before the

fire, and as he sat, with its light shining on him, waiting for the

meal, he sat so still, that he might have been sitting for his portrait.

Very orderly and methodical he looked, with a hand on each

knee, and a loud watch ticking a sonorous sermon under his

flapped waistcoat, as though it pitted its gravity and longevity

against the levity and evanescence of the brisk fire. He had a good

leg, and was a little vain of it, for his brown stockings fitted sleek

and close, and were of a fine texture; his shoes and buckles, too,

th