Seldom, perhaps never, had I beheld one cast in a more faultless mold.

Smooth-shaven, with every harmonious line open to view, it struck the eye with the force and beauty of a cameo; masculine strength and feminine grace equally expressed in the expansive forehead and the perfectly modeled features.

Its effect upon the observer was instantaneous, but the heart was not warmed nor the imagination awakened by it.

In spite of the perfection of the features, or possibly because of this perfection, the whole countenance had a cold look, as cold as the sculpture it suggested; and, though incomparable in pure physical attraction, it lacked the indefinable something which gives life and meaning to such faces as Mayor Packard's, for instance.

Yet it was not devoid of expression, nor did it fail to possess a meaning of its own.
Indeed, it was the meaning in it which held my attention.