He entered the shop, and found an old man, certainly not less than seventy, but rather beyond it, sitting behind the counter.

The appearance of this man was anything but prepossessing.

His brows were low and heavy; his mouth close, and remarkably hard for his years; the forehead low and narrow, and singularly deficient in what phrenologists term the moral and intellectual qualities.

But the worst feature in the whole face might be read in his small, dark, cunning eyes, which no man of any penetration could look upon without feeling that they were significant of duplicity, cruelty, and fraud.

His hair, though long, and falling over his neck, was black as ebony; for although Time had left his impress upon the general features of his face, it had not discolored a single hair upon his head; whilst his whiskers, on the contrary, were like snow--a circumstance which, in connection with his sinister look, gave him a remarkable and startling appearance.