I answered rather at a venture; for not only did I fail to take her meaning with precision, but the sudden disclosure of her eyes disturbed me.

They were unusually large, the iris golden like Felipe's, but the pupil at that moment so distended that they seemed almost black; and what affected me was not so much their size as (what was perhaps its consequence) the singular insignificance of their regard.

A look more blankly stupid I have never met.

My eyes dropped before it even as I spoke, and I went on my way upstairs to my own room, at once baffled and embarrassed.

Yet, when I came there and saw the face of the portrait, I was again reminded of the miracle of family descent.