For, as I watched them, there suddenly came over
the assembly a start and hush such as you see in a boys' school when the
master enters unexpectedly, and there near the open doors of his
headquarters stood the master himself. Even without that sudden
silence, and the scramble to their feet of those upon the benches, I
felt that I should have known instantly that he was present. There was
a pale luminosity about his ivory face which drew the eye towards it,
and though his dress might be the plainest of a hundred, his appearance
would be the first which one would notice. There he was, with his
little plump, heavy-shouldered figure, his green coat with the red
collar and cuffs, his white, well-formed legs, his sword with the gilt
hilt and the tortoise-shell scabbard. His head was uncovered, showing
his thin hair of a ruddy chestnut colour. Under one arm was the flat
cocked hat with the twopenny tricolour rosette, which was already
reproduced in his pictures. In his right hand he held a little riding
switch with a metal head. He walked slowly forward, his face immutable,
his eyes fixed steadily before him, measured, inexorable, the very
personification of Destiny.
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