In talk he readily became vivacious; his short sentences, delivered with a very clear and conciliating enunciation, seemed to indicate energy.

It was a peculiarity that he very rarely smiled, or perhaps I should say that he had the faculty of smiling only with his eyes.

At such moments his look was very winning, very frank in its appeal to sympathy, and compelled one to like him.

Yet, at another time, his aspect could be shrewdly critical; it was so when Annabel fell short of enthusiasm in speaking of the book he had recommended to her when last at Ullswater.

Probably he was not without his share of scepticism.