This is the strange name that Danny gave to the cigar-smoking man in the hat
and pince-nez whose photo he found in the box holding the family snapshots.
Nobody knew who the Pince-Nez Man was, and they couldn?t understand how he?d got
in the box. So who could he have been? And what was his connection with the
beautiful Emily, who was looking so downcast all the time? Only Danny knows, for
it is he who discovered their story. Illustrations of László Réber Translated by
Andrew C. Rouse * What was a pince-nez [ponz-nay]? It was a kind of spectacles
popular at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. As it didn?t
have any side-pieces, you pinched it on your nose (pince = pinch, nez = nose).
Although people don?t wear them any more ? they can?t have been very comfy on
the nose! ? they keep on turning up in stories, films and even computer games
like Harry Potter, Poirot, or Sonic the Hedgehog.