Sheer nervousness will prevent you from uttering a word in his presence, so great are the pride and superiority depicted on his countenance.

Also, were you to sketch him, you would be sketching a veritable Prometheus, for his glance is as that of an eagle, and he walks with measured, stately stride.

Yet no sooner will the eagle have left the room to seek the study of his superior officer than he will go scurrying along (papers held close to his nose) like any partridge.

But in society, and at the evening party (should the rest of those present be of lesser rank than himself) the Prometheus will once more become Prometheus, and the man who stands a step below him will treat him in a way never dreamt of by Ovid, seeing that each fly is of lesser account than its superior fly, and becomes, in the presence of the latter, even as a grain of sand.
"Surely that is not Ivan Petrovitch ?" you will say of such and such a man as you regard him.

"Ivan Petrovitch is tall, whereas this man is small and spare.