She nodded and smiled effusively to them.

Patricia returned her greeting gayly; Merle removed a shining cigarette holder of remarkable length and bowed, but did not smile.

He seemed to be aloof and gloomy.
"He's got a lot on his mind," said Wilbur, studying his brother respectfully.
Merle's plenteous hair, like his cigarette holder, was longer than is commonly worn by his sex, and marked by a certain not infelicitous disorder.

He had trouble with a luxuriant lock of it that persistently fell across his pale brow.

With a weary, world-worn gesture he absently brushed this back into place from moment to moment.