about four in the afternoon
she exclaimed , after glancing down the street , `` our gentleman of the brown coat has taken to wearing a wig ; how much it alters him ! '' The gentleman of the brown coat was , it would seem , the individual who commonly closed the daily procession , for the old woman put on her spectacles and took up her work with a sigh , glancing at her daughter with so strange a look that Lavater himself would have found it difficult to interpret . Admiration , gratitude , a sort of hope for better days , were mingled with pride at having such a pretty daughter . At about four in the afternoon the old lady pushed her foot against Caroline 's , and the girl looked up quickly enough to see the new actor , whose regular advent would thenceforth lend variety to the scene . He was tall and thin , and wore black , a man of about forty , with a certain solemnity of demeanor ; as his piercing hazel eye met the old woman 's dull gaze , he made her quake , for she felt as though he had the gift of reading hearts , or much practice in it , and his presence must surely be as icy as the air of this dank street . Was the dull , sallow complexion of that ominous face due to excess of work , or the result of delicate health ? The old woman supplied twenty different answers to this question ; but Caroline , next day , discerned the lines of long mental suffering on that brow that was so prompt to frown .