Looking at him from the front you would involuntarily exclaim: "What an infamous scoundrel." Looking at him from the rear you would say: "There certainly is brain power in that head." The glance of Mr.Leonard's eye was furtive, and his face was sour looking indeed.

At times when he felt that no one was watching him, his whole countenance and attitude betokened the rage of despair.
Most people who looked at him felt that he carried in his bosom a dark secret.

As to scholarship, he was unquestionably proficient.

No white man in all the neighboring section, ranked with him intellectually.
Despite the lack of all knowledge of his moral character and previous life, he was pronounced as much too good a man to fritter away his time on "niggers." Such was the character of the man into whose hands was committed the destiny of the colored children of Winchester.
As his mother foresaw would be the case, Belton was singled out by the teacher as a special object on which he might expend his spleen.

For a man to be as spiteful as he was, there must have been something gnawing at his heart.