or 'the countess remarked,' or 'I was surprised to hear when I was dining at the Towers yesterday.' But somehow things had changed since Mr Gibson had become 'the doctor' par excellence at Hollingford.The Miss Brownings thought that it was because he had such an elegant figure, and 'such a distinguished manner;' Mrs Goodenough, 'because of his aristocratic connections' - 'the son of a Scotch duke, my dear, never mind on which side of the blanket' - but the fact was certain; although he might frequently ask Mrs Brown to give him something to cat in the housekeeper's room -he had no time for all the fuss and ceremony of luncheon with my lady -he was always welcome to the grandest circle of visitors in the house.
He might lunch with a duke any day that he chose; given that a duke was forthcoming at the Towers.His accent was Scotch, not provincial.He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones; and leanness goes a great way to gentility.His complexion was sallow, and his hair black; in those days, the decade after the conclusion of the great continental war, to be sallow and black-a-vised was of itself a distinction;' he was not jovial (as my lord remarked with a sigh, but it was my lady who endorsed the invitations), sparing of his words, intelligent, and slightly sarcastic.Therefore he was perfectly presentable.His Scotch blood (for that he was of Scotch descent there could be no manner of doubt) gave him just the kind of thistly dignity which made every one feel that they must treat him with respect; so on that head he was assured.