He usually kept his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and only took them out to settle his eye-glasses on his nose, with a movement that was half comic, and which announced the coming of a keen observation or some victorious argument.

His gestures, his loquacity, his innocent self-assertion, proclaimed the provincial lawyer.

These slight defects were, however, superficial; he redeemed them by an exquisite kind-heartedness which a rigid moralist might call the indulgence natural to superiority.

He looked a little like a fox, and he was thought to be very wily, but never false or dishonest.

His wiliness was perspicacity; and consisted in foreseeing results and protecting himself and others from the traps set for them.