CHAPTER XVIII 237
As she said this , she approached her tall person and ample garments so near the window , that I was obliged to bend back almost to the breaking of my spine : in her eagerness she did not observe me at first , but when she did , she curled her lip and moved to another casement . The post-chaise stopped ; the driver rang the door-bell , and a gentleman alighted attired in travelling garb ; but it was not Mr . Rochester ; it was a tall , fashionable-looking man , a stranger .
" How provoking !" exclaimed Miss Ingram : " you tiresome monkey !" ( apostrophising Adele ), " who perched you up in the window to give false intelligence ?" and she cast on me an angry glance , as if I were in fault .
Some parleying was audible in the hall , and soon the new-comer entered . He bowed to Lady Ingram , as deeming her the eldest lady present .
" It appears I come at an inopportune time , madam ," said he , " when my friend , Mr . Rochester , is from home ; but I arrive from a very long journey , and I think I may presume so far on old and intimate acquaintance as to instal myself here till he returns ."
His manner was polite ; his accent , in speaking , struck me as being somewhat unusual , -- not precisely foreign , but still not altogether English : his age might be about Mr . Rochester ' s , -- between thirty and forty ; his complexion was singularly sallow : otherwise he was a fine-looking man , at first sight especially . On closer examination , you detected something in his face that displeased , or rather that failed to please . His features were regular , but too relaxed : his eye was large and well cut , but the life looking out of it was a tame , vacant life -- at least so I thought .
The sound of the dressing-bell dispersed the party . It was not till after dinner that I saw him again : he then seemed quite at his ease . But I liked his physiognomy even less than before : it struck me as being at the same time unsettled and inanimate . His eye wandered , and had no meaning in its wandering : this gave him an odd look , such as I never remembered to have seen . For a handsome and not an unamiable-looking man , he repelled me exceedingly : there was no power in that smooth-skinned face of a full oval