The agent, like many other sensible Englishmen, was a bluff, hearty
sort of man, with a keen eye for the practical side of life and an
equally keen enjoyment of every other, and it was not five minutes
before he had located in his round head the precise standing and
qualifications of every man in the room.
While Yancey amused him greatly as a type quite new to him, the colonel
filled him with delight. "So frank, so courteous, so hospitable; quite
the air of a country squire of the old school," he told Fitz afterward.
As a host that night, the colonel was in his happiest vein, and by the
time the coffee was served, had succeeded not only in entertaining the
table in his own inimitable way, but he had drawn out from each one
of his guests, not excepting the reticent Fitz, some anecdote or
incident of his life, bringing into stronger relief the finer qualities
of him who told it.
Kerfoot in a ponderous way gave the details of a murder case, tried
before him many years ago, in which the judge's charge so influenced
the jury that the man was acquitted, and justly so, as was afterward
proved.
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