She seemed to be struggling, as she sat there, to conceal her fear and aversion for the man who leaned toward her, talking in rapid French, with many gesticulations.

He was badly dressed in a travelling suit of French cut, with a waistcoat buttoned almost to the chin.

A floppy black tie hung down over the lapels of his coat.

His black moustache, which seemed to have suffered from the crossing, was drooping, and gave to his mouth a particularly sinister expression.

He had a neck of unusual size, and the fat ran in ridges to the back of his scalp, worked up by his collar as he moved his head rapidly with every sentence.