Sink or Swim? , Volume II by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

In a small drawing-room on the first floor of a house in / Stanwick-street, two persons were, one cold morning towards the end of / April, seated at a late and very metropolitan-looking breakfast. Of / those two persons Colonel Frederick Norcott was one. His outward man, as / regarded dress at least, had not improved since last we saw him, some / eight months ago, _flânéing_ in the grounds of Danescourt. A short and / somewhat nondescript garment, one which might once have done duty as a / shooting-jacket, but which had degenerated into a coat of many uses / (namely, one that its owner was in the habit of dressing, smoking, and, / as in the present instance, breakfasting in) was greasy and out at / elbows. The Colonel's throat, a scraggy one, as is customary with / middle-aged gentlemen who "keep their figures," was exposed, by reason / of an open shirt-collar, to view, and as he discontentedly munched, / with his still strong teeth, the untempting lodging-house fare provided / for him, the expression of the Colonel's countenance was not precisely / what could be called a bright and a "shining morning face" on that warm / April day.

The "colonial lady," seated opposite to her lord, and watching the / changes of his countenance in hopes to discover therein some sign or / token by which to regulate her remarks, was, as I before hinted, a lady / of faded and "washed out" appearance (_entre les deux âges_), willing / still, as was only natural, to be admired, but swamping all such womanly / aspirations in her deep devotion for, and her overweening appreciation / of, the man who had honoured her with his empty pockets and his / once-respected name.