It was an odd little smile, which fell over his features like a mask and completely hid his thoughts.

It was apparent that Claude de Chauxville's tricks of speech and manner fell here on barren ground.

The Frenchman's epigrams, his method of conveying his meaning in a non-committing and impersonal generality, failed to impress this hearer.

The difference between a Frenchman and a Russian is that the former is amenable to every outward influence--the outer thing penetrates.

The Russian, on the contrary, is a man who works his thoughts, as it were, from internal generation to external action.