His lips were thin and very firm, with a sardonic twist that imparted a faintly supercilious expression.
His eyes were dark, deep-set, and shrewd.

He was a magistrate of some repute in the district, a position which he had attained by sheer unswerving hard work in the police force, in which for years he had been known as "Bloodhound Hill." A man of rigid ideas and stern justice, he had forced his way to the front, respected by all, but genuinely liked by only a very few.
Jack Burton had regarded him as a friend for years, but even Jack could not claim a very close intimacy with him.

He merely understood the man's silences better than most.

His words were very rarely of a confidential order.
He was emphatically not a man to attract any girl very readily, and Dot's attitude towards him had always been of a strictly impersonal nature.

In fact, Jack himself did not know whether she really liked him or not.