A voice responded, the door was opened, and I found myself in a high,
beautifully-painted room, with long windows hung with pastel-blue silk
with heavy gilt fringe, a pastel-blue carpet, and upon the opposite wall
a great canopy of rich purple velvet bearing the double-headed eagle
embroidered in gold. The apartment was splendidly decorated, and in the
center of the parquet floor, with his back to the light, was the thin,
wiry figure of an elderly man in a funereal frock-coat, in the lapel of
which showed the red and yellow ribbon of the Order of Saint Anne. His
hands were behind his back, and he stood purposely in such a position
that when I entered I could not at first see his face against the
strong, gray light behind.
But when the footman had bowed and retired and we were alone, he turned
slightly, and I then saw that his bony face, with high cheek-bones,
slight gray side-whiskers, hard mouth and black eyes set closely
together, was one that bore the mark of evil upon it--the keen, sinister
countenance of one who could act without any compunction and without
regret.
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