His manner showed a peculiar mingling of modesty,
nay, timidity, and vigorous self-reliance. It was evident that he was
unaccustomed to the drawing-room and large companies, and felt at ease
only beside a sick-bed. He was rather awkward in aimless chatter, but,
on the other hand, firm and clear in professional conversation. A mere
boy in the presence of a talkative, pretty girl, but a hero and a
conqueror when with a suffering, anxious human being, beseeching his
aid. His left-hand neighbour, the wife of a Frankfort banker, who
chatted rapidly about the architecture of the dining-hall and the
Wagner performances at Bayreuth, received monosyllabic, hesitating
replies, while he talked eloquently to the lady on his right, the
hostess, upon the influence of modern nervousness upon social forms.
He paid little heed to the guests, and had only glanced at them
carelessly two or three times, bowing to acquaintances, and hastily
obtaining a general impression of the strangers. At each of these
surveys his eyes had remained fixed upon a lady who sat directly
opposite to him, and whose beauty was remarkable, peculiar, and
fascinating.
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