Among  the  first  introductions,  was  a  Major  Morrow  with  his
lady.  The  former  presented  a  great  brawny  frame,  with  a  small,
globular  head  ;  fierce  and  irregular  features,  deeply  marked  with
yellow  freckles  ;  keen  and  cruel  grey  eyes,  restless  and  menacing ;
enormous  red  whiskers,  and  hair  of  the  same  fiery  tint ;  hands
huge  and  apparently  heavy  as  sledge  hammers  ;  with  an  aspect,
combining  the  strangest  mixture  of  cunning,  ferocity,  and  satanic


MAJOR   MORROW   AND    SOL.    TDTTLE CAPTAIN    OARLYLE.  43

pride.  He  was  fashionably  dressed  in  rich  black  cloth,  and
seemed  not  a  little  vain  of  a  magnificent  gold  watch,  which  he
consulted  every  few  minutes,  like  one  awaiting  impatiently  for
the  moment  of  an  important  appointment.
The  wife,  as  if  for  the  sake  of  contrast,  was  a  pale,  delicate
figure,  lithe  and  slender  as  a  sylph,  with  features  sufficiently
comely,  had  they  possessed  one  tinge  of  color,  and  eyes  of  so
unearthly  a  black,  wild,  sad,  and  glittering,  as  to  fill  the  heart
of  the  beholder  with  involuntary  and  nameless  awe.  Had  she
been  less  youthful,  and  more  deficient  in  personal  charms,  she
would  probably  have  been  mistaken  by  vulgar  superstition  for  a
witch  ;  but  as  the  case  was,  she  might  have  sat  for  the  picture  of
some  melancholy  ghost,  that  had  been  disembodied  by  love  and
suicide.
"  I  hear,  Mr.  Boiling,  that  you  had  a  fight  yesterday  with  the
robbers,"  said  Major  Morrow,  in  that  singular  thumping  tone,
which,  more  than  any  other  physical  peculiarity,  distinguishes
the  man  of  belligerent  passions.
*  "  I  met  with  some  ruffians  whose  conduct  indicated  evil  inten
tions  ;  but  I  may,  perhaps,  have  misjudged  them,"  answered  the
youth,  carelessly.
