His shabby, hapless appearance always appealed to her.

She knew that he was, in reality, anything but hapless, but his clothes never fitted him, and it was impossible for him to escape from the Quixotic embarrassments of his thin hair, his high cheek-bones, his large spectacles.

His smile, however, gave him his character; when he smiled--and he was always smiling--you saw a man independent, proud, wise and gentle.

He was not a fool, Mr.Magnus, although he did love Aunt Anne.
To a great deal that he said Maggie paid but little attention; it was, she felt, not intended for her.

She had, in all her relations with him, to struggle against the initial disadvantage that she regarded all men who wrote books with pity.