There are people who call John Saltram ugly.

But his face is not a common one; it is a very picturesque kind of ugliness--a face that Velasquez would have loved to paint, I think.

It is a rugged, strongly-marked countenance with a villanously dark complexion; but the eyes are very fine, the mouth perfection; and there is a look of power in the face that, to my mind, is better than beauty." "And I think you owned that Mr.Saltram is hardly the most agreeable person in the world." "Well, no, he is not what one could well call an eminently agreeable person.

And yet he exercises a good deal of influence over the men he knows, without admitting many of them to his friendship.

He is very clever; not a brilliant talker by any means, except on rare occasions, when he chooses to give full swing to his powers; he does not lay himself out for social successes; but he is a man who seems to know more of every subject than the men about him.