Page:Pierre and Jean - Clara Bell - 1902.djvu/305

Rh Norman, somewhat massive, but firmly knit and well set up, with a resolute and manly face, which in the early days of his vigorous youth was not without a strain of vulgarity in so far as his twisted mustaches, his muscular neck, the hair brushed across his forehead, and his confident expression gave him somewhat the air of a certain type of non-commissioned officer, or of a young squireen of Lower Normandy, irresistible to women.

This character of strength, muscular vigour, exuberant health and universal conquest had impressed itself on him without any effort on his part in his rough life in the open air and on the water, long before he had become a successful writer, when he was preparing to enter the government office in which he was a clerk for a short time. In all the portraits of him till after 1880 we note this aspect of overflowing life, of a sanguine temperament, and of a frame made for the healthy exercises of boating, often evidently