My Library

while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman’s positions; and that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were decidedly triangular—almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being very singular. But what was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole, his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked up and observed a smile on Ravalette’s face as he saw my surprise at beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe it could be called. “ ‘That,’ said he, divining my thought, ‘is and yet is not a mere fancy of mine. I have a peculiar reverence for those figures, as you may plainly see.’ And with this he drew my attention to an exquisite brooch or pin in his bosom. “This rare jewel, which I had previously seen but not noticed particularly, consisted of a triangle formed of a crescent or quarter circle and a compass, or, as the instrument is improperly called, a pair of compasses. In the centre of this was a tiny cross formed of minute