.

any order you please." "We must leave out all allusion to his hair, I think," said Mr.
Basket; "and, by the way, I suppose the--er--authorities will desire to take possession of any other little odds-and-ends our friend left behind him?
Complexion, clear and sanguine; strongly marked features.

His eye, sir, was like Mars, to threaten and command; but I forget the precise colour at this moment.

We might, perhaps, content ourselves with 'piercing.' If I allow myself to be betrayed into a description of his moral qualities--" "Unnecessary," put in the Chief Constable.
"And yet, sir, it was by his moral qualities that my friend ever impressed himself most distinctly on all who met him.

Alas! that I should be speaking of him in the past tense! He was a man, sir, as Shakespeare puts it: "Take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again." "A most happy description, Mr.Basket," the Doctor agreed.
"Would you mind saying it over again, that I may commit it to memory ?" Mr.Basket obligingly repeated it.
"Most happy! Shakespeare, you say?
Thank you." The Doctor copied it into his pocket-book among the prescriptions.
"One might add, perhaps," Mr.Basket submitted respectfully, "that a mere physical description, however animated, cannot do justice to my friend's moral grandeur, which, indeed, would require the brush of a Michael Angelo." The Chief Constable inquired what reward they proposed to offer.
"Ah, yes; to be sure!" Taken somewhat unexpectedly, Mr.Basket and the Doctor exchanged glances.
"On behalf of the relatives, now--" began Mr.Basket.
"So far as I know, Miss Martha was the one relative he had in the world," answered the Doctor.
"So much the better, my friend, seeing that you have (as I understand) her entire confidence." "I was about to suggest that--circumstances having forced you into prominence--to take the lead, so to speak, in this unhappy affair--" "But why do we talk of price ?" interposed Mr.Basket briskly, "seeing that the loss, if loss it be, is nothing short of irreparable?
To my mind there is something--er--" "Desecrating," suggested the Doctor.
"Quite so--desecrating--in this reduction of our poor friend to pounds, shillings, and pence." "Nevertheless it is usual to name a sum," the Chief Constable assured them.