She looked sixty at the first glance, and close acquaintanceship never proved her older.
Another and still more winning trait was one attaching to the corners of her mouth.

Before she made a remark these often twitched gently: not backwards and forwards, the index of nervousness; not down upon the jaw, the sign of determination; but palpably upwards, in precisely the curve adopted to represent mirth in the broad caricatures of schoolboys.

Only this element in her face was expressive of anything within the woman, but it was unmistakable.

It expressed humour subjective as well as objective--which could survey the peculiarities of self in as whimsical a light as those of other people.
This is not all of Mrs.Swancourt.She had held out to Elfride hands whose fingers were literally stiff with rings, signis auroque rigentes, like Helen's robe.

These rows of rings were not worn in vanity apparently.