Plump, yet dignified, smiling easily and kindly, three plain business men looked at him; respectable citizens, commonplace citizens, a little smug; faces that spoke of comfort, method, regularity; eyes that seemed to wink with the pressure of platitudes in the minds behind them; platitudes that desired to force their way to the lips and out into the world.
Yes, such was the genius of Wilton Barnstable that he could at will impose himself upon people as the apotheosis of the commonplace.

He did it often.

It was almost second nature to him now.

His urbane smile was the only visible sign of his own enjoyment of this habitual feat.
He knew his own genius, and smiled to think how easy it was to pass for an average man!.