Basket, "of a group in my garden entitled
_Finding the body of Harold_. Five feet three, you say? I had
better scratch out 'imposing exterior'; or, stay!--we'll alter it to
'carriage.'"
"Chest, thirty-six inches; waist, forty-three inches; complexion--
does that come next?" Doctor Hansombody appealed to the Chief
Constable, who nodded.
"Complexion, features, colour of hair, of eyes . . . any order you
please."
"We must leave out all allusion to his hair, I think," said Mr.
Basket; "and, by the way, I suppose the--er--authorities will desire
to take possession of any other little odds-and-ends our friend left
behind him? Complexion, clear and sanguine; strongly marked
features. His eye, sir, was like Mars, to threaten and command; but
I forget the precise colour at this moment. We might, perhaps,
content ourselves with 'piercing.' If I allow myself to be betrayed
into a description of his moral qualities--"
"Unnecessary," put in the Chief Constable.
"And yet, sir, it was by his moral qualities that my friend ever
impressed himself most distinctly on all who met him. Alas! that I
should be speaking of him in the past tense! He was a man, sir, as
Shakespeare puts it:
"Take him for all in all,
We shall not look upon his like again."
"A most happy description, Mr. Basket," the Doctor agreed.
"Would you mind saying it over again, that I may commit it to
memory?"
Mr.
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