Such was the effect that the Wilbur twin wondered if his own ears had been suddenly deafened.

This Whipple continued to shake silently.

The other, who had not laughed, whose face seemed ill-modelled for laughing, nevertheless turned sparkling eyes from under shelving brows upon Juliana and said in words stressed with emotion: "My dear, you have brightened my whole day." The first Whipple, now recovered from his unseemly paroxysm, sat erect to study the newcomers in detail.

He was a short, round-chested man with a round moon face marked by heavy brows like those of the other.

He had fat wrists and stout, blunt fingers.