The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

52 REYNOLDS’ WORKS what dirty look. He had very red hair, huge moustaches, and small eyes of pinkish blue. -There certainly was nothing aristocratic in his appearance, whatever there might be in his name; neither was there any particular freshness in his costume. On the contrary, it seemed a little the worse for wear. It consisted of a blue dress coat with a stand-up collar; 1t was cut round in front, and thus sloped away into the tails; it had a great deal of black braiding about it, and was worn unbuttoned. The waistcoat was white, — or, rather, had been a week back when it first came home from the wash, but it was evident that this article, as well as the chevalier’s shirt, had not been put on clean in the morning of that particular day. His pantaloons were black, with long stripes of braiding; his hat was of singular shape, and somewhat deficient in nap. He wore a profusion of jewelry, which looked very well at the first glance, but per- haps would not have borne the close inspection of a con- noisseur in such articles. Indeed, we are very much afraid that if the Chevalier Gumbinnen had sought to raise a loan upon all the personal property which was included under this particular head, the pawnbroker would have pronounced the diamonds to be paste, and would have found that the gold chains passed not readily through the ordeal of the test- ing acid. In a word, this foreign gentleman’s appearance was sufficient to mystify Christian considerably as to who or what he could possibly be. Without speaking a word, the Chevalier Gumbinnen drew forth a somewhat soiled pocketbook, and producing thence a dirty scrap of paper, displayed it before Christian’s eyes, at the same time fixing upon him a look of knowingness rather than of well-bred inquiry. It was our hero’s own advertisement, cut out of the Times; he therefore hastened to declare that it was so, and that he was the “C. A.” therein specified. Still the chevalier maintained a profound silence, so that Christian was at a loss whether to conclude that his visitor was altogether dumb, or that he was merely unable to comprehend the English language. Again, how- ever, was the chevalier’s hand plunged into the pocketbook, and now he drew forth a larger card than his own, and which he presented to our hero. It was not the cleanest in the world, but, nevertheless, whatsoever it had on it was per- fectly visible. On the upper part there was a sovereign CONNIE COL KS (EO) m