But neither his attire nor the unusual size and dark brilliancy of his eyes was so noticeable as his hair and beard, which outgrew the bounds of common experience.  Beards, to be sure, were far more rare twenty years ago than they have since become.  The hair was yellow, with the true hyacinthine curl pervading it.  Rejoicing in luxuriant might, it clothed and reclothed the head, and, descending lower, tumbled itself in bold masses on the young man’s shoulders.  As for the beard, it was well in keeping.  Of a purer yellow than the hair, it twisted down in crisp, vigorous waves below the point marked by mankind’s third shirt-stud.  It was full half as broad as it was long, and lay to the right and left from the centre-line of the face.  The owner of this oriflamme looked like a young Scandinavian god.

There seems to be a deeper significance in hair than meets the eye.  Sons of Esau, whose beards grow high up on their cheek-bones, who are hairy down to their ankles, and to the second joints of their fingers, are generally men of a kindly and charitable nature, strong in what we call the human element.  One remembers their stout hand-grip; they look frankly in one’s face, and the heart is apt to go out to them more spontaneously than to the smooth-faced Jacobs.  Such a man was Samson, whose hair was his strength,—­the strength of inborn truth and goodness, whereby he was enabled to smite the lying Philistines.  And although they once, by their sophistries, managed to get the better of him for a while, they forgot that good inborn is too vigorous a matter for any mere razor finally to subdue.  See, again, what a great beard Saint Paul had, and what an outspoken, vigorous heart!  Was it from freak that Greeks and Easterns reverenced beards as symbols of manhood, dignity, and wisdom? or that Christian Fathers thundered against the barber, as a violator of divine law?  No one, surely, could accuse that handy, oily, easy little personage of evil intent; but he symbolized the subtile principle which pares away the natural virtue of man, and substitutes an artificial polish, which is hypocrisy.  It is to be observed, however, that hair can be representative of natural evil as well as of good.  A tangle-headed bush-ranger does not win our sympathies.  A Mussulman keeps his beard religiously clean.

Meanwhile the yellow-haired Scandinavian, whom we have already laid under the imputation of being a dandy, stood on the threshold of Mr. Dyke’s office, and that gentleman confronted him with a singularly inquisitive stare.  The visitor’s face was a striking one, but can be described, for the present, only in general terms.  He might not be called handsome; yet a very handsome man would be apt to appear insignificant beside him.  His features showed strength, and were at the same time cleanly and finely cut.  There was freedom in the arch of his eyebrows, and plenty of eye-room beneath them.