278 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



The leonine roughness of his exterior, the shaggy 

 hair, the strong-boned overhanging brows, the head 

 carried far forward and shoulders bent as with brood- 

 ing thought, the working man's gait and gesture, lent 

 the enchantment of a delicate surprise to the deep 

 gentleness which they disguised. Never was the dif- 

 ference between the conventional gentleman and the true 

 gentleman, the possibility that one may be every inch 

 a true gentleman and yet every inch not a conventional 

 gentleman, more signally illustrated than in the case of 

 Miller. A fine and tender sympathy, the soul of polite- 

 ness, enabled him, spontaneously, unconsciously, to feel 

 with every feeling, to think with every thought, of the 

 person with whom he conversed. The faculty of skilful 

 and kindly listening is rarer even than that of fluent 

 and brilliant talk, and Miller had it in fine perfection. 

 He had, however, the gift of captivating speech, as well. 

 His conversation, though never voluble, impulsive, pre- 

 cipitate, exhibited the action not only of a powerful but 

 of an educated intellect, practised in logic and trained 

 to the expert use of its linguistic instruments. He never 

 was at a loss for an idea, never at a loss for a word, and 

 the stores of his memory afforded him an exhaustless 

 supply of illustration from what he had seen in nature 

 or read in books. There was a pensiveness, also, in his 

 tone, a profound sadness in his eye, a touch of egot- 

 istic melancholy about him, which is a spell of absolute 

 enthralment for most women, and indeed for most men. 

 ' The bewitching smile/ says Mr Disraeli, ' usually 

 beams from the grave face. It is then irresistible/ 



Miss Fraser, as we should have expected, was not 

 without admirers of the other sex at the time when 

 she formed the acquaintance of Hugh Miller. They 

 were 'younger and dressed better ' than the stone-mason, 



