The haughty eyes were physically the great man's weak point.

This point was wrapped up in secrecy.

When an opportunity offered, he rested them conscientiously.
The Assistant Commissioner entering saw at first only a big pale hand supporting a big head, and concealing the upper part of a big pale face.
An open despatch-box stood on the writing-table near a few oblong sheets of paper and a scattered handful of quill pens.

There was absolutely nothing else on the large flat surface except a little bronze statuette draped in a toga, mysteriously watchful in its shadowy immobility.

The Assistant Commissioner, invited to take a chair, sat down.