With this went a sense of his being clad, not in lighter colours, but in softer materials; his black seemed richer and warmer than the black shades about him, as if it were compounded of profound colour.

His black coat looked as if it were only black by being too dense a purple.

His black beard looked as if it were only black by being too deep a blue.

And in the gloom and thickness of the beard his dark red mouth showed sensual and scornful.

Whatever he was he was not a Frenchman; he might be a Jew; he might be something deeper yet in the dark heart of the East.