Perhaps the sunken cheeks and the protruding cheekbones gave her this impression.

What reassured her, however, more than anything else, was the shape of the mouth: it was warmly turned.
The confirmed drunkard's mouth at length sets itself peculiarly; it becomes the mark by which thoughtful men know him.

It was not in evidence here, not a sign of it.
A drunken idea, Ah Cum had called it.

And yet it was basically a fine action.

To buy the freedom of a poor little Chinese slave-girl! For what was the sing-song girl but a slave, the double slave of custom and of men?
Ruth wanted to know keenly what had impelled the idea.