who kept his eyes so close shut that one might have thought him blind; but Professor Higginson knew at that word that he was standing in the presence of Lord Biggleton, and he suffered that mixture of pleasure and apprehension which Dons suffer in the presence of the great.
He wondered who the first speaker might be. If this bald-headed man with eyes shut fast like a pig was Lord Biggleton, why then the well-groomed man with iron-grey hair and the single eye-glass, who was so familiar, might be the greatest in the land.
He was not to be informed. All old Biggleton said was—
"What 's that, Jack? Yes," and steadfastly refused to open his eyes; but Professor Higginson, unobservant as he was, could see that they were not absolutely fast, but that between the upper and the lower lid there gleamed an intense and dangerous cunning.
It was always said that Lord Biggleton might have had the Premiership if he had chosen, but certainly a man with those eyes had reached whatever eminence he cared to reach. There was no meeting them. They lay in ambush behind the heavy lids, and did useful work through the slits beneath.
