In his store, before taking to this business, he had been accustomed for many years to retail goods to the farmers at high prices, on the usual long credit system.  He had thus got a number of farmers deeply in his debt, and, in many cases, in preference to suing them, had taken mortgages on their farms.  By this means, instead of merely recovering the money owing to him by the usual process of law, he was enabled, by threatening to foreclose the mortgages, to compel them to sell their farms nearly on his own terms, whenever an opportunity occurred to re-sell them advantageously to new comers.  Thus, besides making thirty or forty per cent. on his goods, he often realised more than a hundred per cent. on his land speculations.

In a new country, where there is no great competition in mercantile business, and money is scarce, the power and profits of store-keepers are very great.  Mr. Q—–­ was one of the most grasping of this class.  His heart was case-hardened, and his conscience, like gum, elastic; it would readily stretch, on the shortest notice, to any required extent, while his well-tutored countenance betrayed no indication of what was passing in his mind.  But I must not forget to give a sketch of the appearance, or outward man, of this highly-gifted individual.

He was about the middle size, thin and limber, and somewhat loose in his lower joints, like most of the native Canadians and Yankees.  He had a slight stoop in his shoulders, and his long, thin neck was continually stretched out before him, while his restless little cunning eyes were roaming about in search of prey.  His face, when well watched, was an index to his selfish and unfeeling soul.  Complexion he had none, except that sempiternally enduring red-and-tawny mixture which is acquired by exposure and hard drinking.  His cheeks and the corners of his eyes were marked by an infinity of curved lines, and, like most avaricious and deceitful men, he had a long, crooked chin, and that peculiar prominent and slightly aquiline nose which, by people observant of such indications, has been called “the rogue’s nose.”  But how shall I describe his eye—­that small hole through which you can see an honest man’s heart?  Q—–­’s eye was like no other eye I had ever seen.  His face and mouth could assume a good-natured expression, and smile; but his eye was still the same—­it never smiled, but remained cold, hard, dry, and inscrutable.  If it had any expression at all, it was an unhappy one.  Such were the impressions created by his appearance, when the observer was unobserved by him; for he had the art of concealing the worst traits of his character in an extraordinary degree, and when he suspected that the curious hieroglyphics which Nature had stamped on his visage were too closely scanned, he knew well how to divert the investigator’s attention to some other object.

He was a humorist, besides, in his way, because he found that jokes and fun admirably served his turn.  They helped to throw people off their guard, and to conceal his hang-dog look.