He wore eyeglasses, his beard was shiny, and he spoke with a peculiar singing voice.

He produced the impression of a stranger from a far-distant land.

He spoke about simple matters--about family life, about children, about commerce, the police, the price of bread and meat--about everything by which people live from day to day; and in everything he discovered fraud, confusion, and stupidity, sometimes setting these matters in a humorous light, but always showing their decided disadvantage to the people.
To the mother, too, it seemed that he had come from far away, from another country, where all the people lived a simple, honest, easy life; and that here everything was strange to him, that he could not get accustomed to this life and accept it as inevitable, that it displeased him, and that it aroused in him a calm determination to rearrange it after his own model.

His face was yellowish, with thin, radiate wrinkles around his eyes, his voice low, and his hands always warm.

In greeting the mother he would enfold her entire hand in his long, powerful fingers, and after such a vigorous hand clasp she felt more at ease and lighter of heart.
Other people came from the city, oftenest among them a tall, well-built young girl with large eyes set in a thin, pale face.