The stranger also wore tight-fitting trousers and Suwaroff
boots. A huge blue-and-white cameo pinned his shirt; two watch-chains
hung from his belt; his hair, worn in ringlets on each side of his
face, concealed nearly the whole forehead; and, for a last adornment,
the collar of his shirt and that of his coat came so high that his
head seemed enveloped like a bunch of flowers in a horn of paper. Add
to these queer accessories, which were combined in utter want of
harmony, the burlesque contradictions in color of yellow trousers,
scarlet waistcoat, cinnamon coat, and a correct idea will be gained of
the supreme good taste which all dandies blindly obeyed in the first
years of the Consulate. This costume, utterly uncouth, seemed to have
been invented as a final test of grace, and to show that there was
nothing too ridiculous for fashion to consecrate. The rider seemed to
be about thirty years old, but he was really twenty-two; perhaps he
owed this appearance of age to debauchery, possibly to the perils of
the period. In spite of his preposterous dress, he had a certain
elegance of manner which proved him to be a man of some breeding.
When the captain had dropped back close to the carriage, the dandy
seemed to fathom his design, and favored it by checking his horse.
Merle, who had flung him a sardonic glance, encountered one of those
impenetrable faces, trained by the vicissitudes of the Revolution to
hide all, even the most insignificant, emotion.
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