ABSTRACT
A man in the habit of stopping out until five in the morning should never have a looking-glass in his room. I t was a painful thing to see the captain advance timidly to his toilet-table and gaze upon himself. Despite the rose-coloured curtains, he looked as yellow as mustard. He leaned forward to see if the wrinkles about the eyes and forehead had deepened, and then sighed sadly, as if he thought they had. He was looking far from well that morning. The texture of his skin did not please him, the grain of it being coarse as that of an ostrich's egg, and its colour that of cold size. Even when he had pushed his hair off his forehead, coughed, struck his chest, and vigorously thrown his shoulders back, there was nothing prepossessing in his general appearance. In disgust he gave* up all attempts at .personal embellishment, and returned to his bed. As he lay there, he blessed his fate that he was not a married man ; " for , " thought he, "how disgusted my wife would be if she saw me now."
