His hair was peculiar; it was deeply tinged with grey, and in the vicinity of his temples, white. This was strikingly in contrast with the youthful fire of his eye, and the lightness of his step, that instead of seeming the effect of age, it enhanced the contradictory claims of his otherwise apparent youth and vigour.
"What a queer-looking man," exclaimed Mrs. Jeremy, when he had passed out.
"An elegant-looking man, isn't he?" said Gertrude.
"Elegant?" rejoined Mrs. Jeremy. "What! with that grey head?"
"I think it's beautiful," said Gertrude; "but I wish he didn't look so melancholy; it makes me quite sad to see him."
"How old should you think he was?" asked Dr. Jeremy.
"A wide difference," remarked Emily. "Doctor, you must decide the point."
"Impossible! I wouldn't venture to tell that man's age within ten years, at least. Wife has got him old enough, certainly; perhaps I might see him as low as Gertrude's mark. Age never turned _his_ hair grey!--that is certain."
To travellers in the United States, a trip from Boston into New York state is an everyday affair, scarce worth calling a journey; but to Dr. Jeremy it was a momentous event, calling the good physician out of a routine of daily professional visits, which, for twenty years, had not been interrupted by a week's absence from home, and plunging him at once into that whirl of hurry, tumult, and excitement, which exists on all our great routes, especially in the summer season.
The doctor was by nature and habit a social being; never shrinking from intercourse with his fellow-men, but seeking and enjoying their companionship. He knew how to adapt himself to the taste of young and old, rich and poor, and was well acquainted with city life in all its forms. In the art of travelling, however, he was totally unversed.
Thankful were the party when they were safe on the steamboat; and were congratulating themselves and each other, when the doctor called from the other end of the saloon--"Come, come, wife--Gertrude, Emily! what are you staying down in this confined place for? you'll lose the best view;" and, coming toward them, he took Gertrude's arm, and would have hurried her away, leaving Mrs. Jeremy and Emily to follow; but Gertrude would not trust Emily to ascend the cabin-stairs under any guardianship but her own, and Mrs. Jeremy immediately engaged the doctor in an animated discussion as to the advisability of his adopting a straw hat, which the thoughtful wife had brought from home. By the time the question was settled, and Emily, at Gertrude's persuasion, had been induced to change her thin mantilla for a light travelling-cloak, the boat had proceeded some distance, and when our party gained the head of the stairs, and looked about them for seats on deck, not a single vacant bench was to be seen. There was a large number of passengers, nearly all of whom were collected at the stern of the boat. Dr. Jeremy went in search of chairs.