Lauriston,
who, during his residence in Paddington, had wandered a good deal about
Maida Vale and St. John's Wood, instantly recognized Dr. Mirandolet as a
man whom he had often met or passed in those excursions and about whom he
had just as often wondered. He was a notable and somewhat queer figure--a
tall, spare man, of striking presence and distinctive personality--the
sort of man who would inevitably attract attention wherever he was, and at
whom people would turn to look in the most crowded street. His aquiline
features, almost cadaverous complexion, and flashing, deep-set eyes, were
framed in a mass of raven-black hair which fell in masses over a loosely
fitting, unstarched collar, kept in its place by a voluminous black silk
cravat; his thin figure, all the sparer in appearance because of his broad
shoulders and big head, was wrapped from head to foot in a mighty cloak,
raven-black as his hair, from the neck of which depended a hood-like cape.
Not a man in that court would have taken Dr. Mirandolet for anything but a
foreigner, and for a foreigner who knew next to nothing of England and the
English, and John Purdie, whose interest was now thoroughly aroused, was
surprised as he heard the witness's answer to the necessary preliminary
questions.
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