We may say, therefore, that he was a wise man,--and
probably, on the whole, a good man; that he did good service in his
parish, and helped his people along in their lives not
inefficiently. He was a small man, with dark hair very closely cut,
with a tonsure that was visible but not more than visible; with a
black beard that was shaved every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday
evenings, but which was very black indeed on the Tuesday and Friday
mornings. He always wore the black gown of his office, but would go
about his parish with an ordinary soft slouch hat,--thus subjecting
his appearance to an absence of ecclesiastical trimness which,
perhaps, the most enthusiastic of his friends regretted. Madame
Voss certainly would have wished that he would have had himself
shaved at any rate every other day, and that he would have abstained
from showing himself in the streets of Granpere without his clerical
hat. But, though she was very intimate with her Cure, and had
conferred upon him much material kindness, she had never dared to
express her opinion to him upon these matters.
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