He looks tired, and maybe a trifle harassed. He is a
gray-haired, long, slender man, with a colourless long face, which, in
repose, suggests a death-mask; but when not in repose is tossed and
rippled by a turbulent smile which washes this way and that, and is not
easy to keep up with--a pious smile, a holy smile, a saintly smile, a
deprecating smile, a beseeching and supplicating smile; and when it is at
work the large mouth opens, and the flexible lips crumple, and unfold,
and crumple again, and move around in a genial and persuasive and angelic
way, and expose large glimpses of the teeth; and that interrupts the
sacredness of the smile and gives it momentarily a mixed worldly and
political and satanic cast. It is a most interesting face to watch. And
then the long hands and the body--they furnish great and frequent help to
the face in the business of adding to the force of the statesman's words.
To change the tense. At the time of which I have just been speaking the
crowds in the galleries were gazing at the stage and the pit with rapt
interest and expectancy.
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