Painter or sculptor alike would have rejoiced to depict the face on canvas or carve it in marble--its perfect shape, fine tinting, the lines of the features, the beauty of the eyes, the wealth of the dark, clustering hair, were all as near artistic perfection as could be.

But all else spoke of deformity--the badly bent back, the twisted body, the short leg, the misshapen foot.

It was as if Nature had endeavoured in some wickedly mischievous freak to show how beauty and ugliness can be combined in one creature.
That was one reason for wonder in Appleyard's mind--he had never come across quite this type before, though he knew that hunchbacks and cripples are often gifted with unusual strength, and more than usual good looks, as if in ironic compensation for their other disadvantages.

But there were others.

Mr.Gerald Rayner--everybody knew everybody else's name in that private hotel, for they were all more or less permanent residents--was something of a mystery man.