Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/121



, alias M. de Maxeville, was a distinguished-looking man of medium height, but very broad and compactly made. In his long black redingote and narrow French trousers one would never have guessed the heavy bone and muscle underneath. His face, though scarcely to be called handsome, was intelligent, and, in a way, attractive, being forceful and wearing an habitually pleasant expression. Indeed, one of his nicknames was "l' homme qui sourit." Chu-Chu was usually smiling. He went about the streets with the hint of a smile on his face. He may have trained himself to wear this pleased expression, which is, after all, a fairly good mask. One hardly looks for a recent murderer going about with a pleasant smile on his lips.

Chu-Chu's forehead was very broad and high, his eyes small, of a curious slaty brown and set well apart; he had a long nose and a black moustache and imperial. His jaws, very prominent at the angles, and the heavy cheekbones suggested a Spanish strain. His hands were beautifully shaped and usually rest less.

Chu-Chu dressed with the quiet elegance which might be expected of a senator, and when he spoke his bass voice was slow, quiet and pleasingly modulated. He had a curious, precise way of dragging 105