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ambition higher than that of shining in Society ; he could bring her sympathies within his own control. Could he? There was the rub. And there, still before him, was his idea of the face which of all others he had ever seen pos- sessed intellectual fire, poetic sentiment, but had withal a something fearful in its great eyes, and something thril- lingly mysterious in its sudden appearance and in its no less startling disappearance.
He walked to the easel, picked up the silk remnant, and glanced round the room as if he expected to see some one ; then mechanically wrapping up the piece of silk, placed it carefully away in his wardrobe, took up his palette, wiped it, and commenced to squeeze a series of color tubes upon it.
While he is thus engaged, let us glance at him critically. It is a promising youth, not quite rugged enough perhaps for the making of a man of action, but at the same time betokening firmness, good health, ambition, checked, how- ever, by one physiognomical drawback, a somewhat weak chin, and with eyebrows that as a rule rarely accompany a happy disposition. Lavater has some notable views upon the meeting eyebrows held by the Arabs to be so beautiful, and by the old physiognomists to be the mark of craft, but regarded by the master as neither beautiful nor betokening craft, but rather, while giving the face a somewhat gloomy appearance, denoting trouble of mind and heart. Similarly with the pointed chin ; many people believe it to be the accompaniment of acuteness and craft, but Lavater knew many honorable persons with such chins, and he noted that their craft is the craft of the best dramatic poetry.
Philip Forsyth had the melancholy eyebrows and the flaw of weakness in the chin, not as to the pointed chin, but to the want of angularity, and the suggestion of retreat, coupled with a something negative in both its form and size ; but for these drawbacks Philip's face was the face of an artist, and a
