Had the dying Professor worn them, or even the pale Secretary, they would have been appropriate.

But on the younger and grosser man they seemed only an enigma.

They took away the key of the face.

You could not tell what his smile or his gravity meant.
Partly from this, and partly because he had a vulgar virility wanting in most of the others it seemed to Syme that he might be the wickedest of all those wicked men.

Syme even had the thought that his eyes might be covered up because they were too frightful to see..