Had he been taller, had his beard been pointed rather than square, he would have been graceful and even picturesque--but his figure, as he strode along, showed foursquare, as though it had been hewn out of wood; one of those pale, almost white, honey-coloured woods would give the effect of his fair beard and eyebrows.

His thick red lips were more startling than ever, curved as they usually were in cynical contempt of some foolish victim.

How he did despise us! When one of our childish quarrels arose at meal-times he would say nothing, but would continue stolidly his serious business of eating.
He was very fond of his food, which he ate in the greediest manner.
When the quarrel was subsiding, as it usually did, into the first glasses of tea, he would look up, watch us with his contemptuous blue eyes, laugh and say: "Well, and now ?...

Who is it next ?"--and every one would be clumsily embarrassed.
We were often, as are all Russian companies, ridiculously amused about nothing.

At the most serious crises we would, like Gayeff in "The Cherry Orchard," suddenly break into stupid bursts of laughter, quite aimless but with a great deal of sincerity.