WYLDER'S HAJVD.
425
brought forth no cigar-case, with the stereotyped, "Have
you any objection to my smoking a cigar?" He did not
even change his attitude ever so little. A burly roll of
cloaks, rugs, and capes, and loose wrappers, placed in the
corner, and tanquam cadaver, passive and motionless.
As they got on there was more night fog, and the little
lamp at top shone through a halo. The fellow-passenger
at the opposite angle lay back, all cloaks and mufflers,
with nothing distinct emerging but the felt hat at top,
and the tip — it was only the tip now — of the shining
shoe on the floor.
The gentleman was absolutely motionless and silent.
And Mr. Larkin, though his mind was pretty universally
of the inquisitive order, began in this particular case to
feel a special curiosity. It was partly the monotony and
their occupying the carriage all to themselves — as the
two uncommunicative seamen did the Eddystone Light-
house— but there was, beside, an indistinct feeling, that,
in spite of all these wrappers and swathings, he knew
the outlines of that figure; and yet the likeness must
have been of the rudest possible sort.
He could not say that he recognized anything distinct-
ly — only he fancied that some one he knew was sitting
there, unrevealed, inside that mass of clothing. And he
felt moreover, as if he ought to be able to guess who he