It just happened that I saw the thing in a light of consolation.

Things are bad with me, but not so bad as THAT.

I might be going out between Jack Ketch and the Chaplain to be hanged; instead of that, I am eating a really fresh egg, and very excellent buttered toast, with coffee as good as can be reasonably expected in this part of the world .-- (Do try boiling the milk, mother.)--The tone in which I spoke was spontaneous; being so, it needs no justification.' He was a young man of five-and-twenty, well built, though a trifle meagre, and of pale complexion.

He had hair that was very nearly black, and a clean-shaven face, best described, perhaps, as of bureaucratic type.

The clothes he wore were of expensive material, but had seen a good deal of service.