this theory, from the fact that, within a few days past, Mr. Jennings had contracted an ugly knack of carrying his erect head in the comfortless position of peeping over his left shoulder; not always so, indeed, but often enough to be remarkable; and then he would occasionally start it straight again, eyes right, with a nervous twitch, any thing but pleasant to the marvelling spectator.  It was as if he was momentarily expecting to look upon some vague object that affrighted him, and sometimes really did see it.  Mr. Jennings had consulted high medical authority (as Hurstley judged), to wit, the Union doctor of last scene, an enterprising practitioner, glib in theory, and bold in practice—­and it had been mutually agreed between them that “stomach” was the cause of these unhandsome symptoms; acridity of the gastric juice, consequent indigestion and spasm, and generally a hypochondriacal habit of body.  Mr. Jennings must take certain draughts thrice a day, be very careful of his diet, and keep his mind at ease.  As to Simon himself, he was, poor man, much to be pitied in this ideal visitation; for, though his looks confessed that he saw, or fancied he saw, a something, he declared himself wholly at a loss to explain what that something was:  moreover, contrary to former habits of an ostentatious boldness, he seemed meekly to shrink from observation:  and, as he piously acquiesced in the annoyance, would observe that his unpleasant jerking was “a little matter after all, and that, no doubt, the will of Providence.”

Independently of these new grimaces, Simon’s appearance was little in his favour:  not that his small dimensions signified—­Caesar, and Buonaparte, and Wellington, and Nelson, all were little men—­not that his dress was other than respectable—­black coat and waistcoat, white stiff cravat, gray trowsers somewhat shrunk in longitude, good serviceable shoe-leather (of the shape, if not also of the size, of river barges), and plenty of unbleached cotton stocking about the gnarled region of his ankles.  All this was well enough; nature was beholden to that charity of art which hides a multitude of failings; but the face, where native man looks forth in all his unadornment, that it was which so seldom pre-possessed the many who had never heard of Jenning’s strict character and stern integrity.  The face was a sallow face, peaked towards the nose, with head and chin receding; lit withal by small protrusive eyes, so constructed, that the whites all round were generally visible, giving them a strange and staring look; elevated eye-brows; not an inch of whisker, but all shaved sore right up to the large and prominent ear; and lank black, hair, not much of it, scantily thatching all smooth.  Then his arms, oscillating as he walked (as if the pendulum by which that rigid man was made to go his regular routine), were much too long for symmetry:  and altogether, to casual view, Mr. Jennings must acknowledge to a supercilious, yet sneaking air—­which charity has ere now been kind enough to think a conscious rectitude towards man, and a soft-going humility with God.