The sun had given a bronzed tint to his features which was exceedingly becoming.
He had black hair, with a slight curl running through it, and large melancholy blue eyes, which he inherited from his mother.

Poor girl! it was the sole beauty that she had possessed.

He was utterly uncultured, and had been ruled with such a rod of iron by his father that he had never been a league from the Chateau.

His ideas were barred by the little town of Bevron, with its sixty houses, its town hall, its small chapel, and principal river; and to him it seemed a spot full of noise and confusion.

In the whole course of his life he had never spoken to three persons who did not belong to the district.