Quotation from: The Strength of the Strong

Written by: Jack London


The sunken cheeks and pinched nose told little of the quality of
the life that flickered behind those clear blue eyes of hers.
Despite the minutiae of wrinkle-work that somehow failed to weazen
them, her eyes were clear as a girl's--clear, out-looking, and far-
seeing, and with an open and unblinking steadfastness of gaze that
was disconcerting. The remarkable thing was the distance between
them. It is a lucky man or woman who has the width of an eye
between, but with Margaret Henan the width between her eyes was
fully that of an eye and a half. Yet so symmetrically moulded was
her face that this remarkable feature produced no uncanny effect,
and, for that matter, would have escaped the casual observer's
notice. The mouth, shapeless and toothless, with down-turned
corners and lips dry and parchment-like, nevertheless lacked the
muscular slackness so usual with age. The lips might have been
those of a mummy, save for that impression of rigid firmness they
gave. Not that they were atrophied. On the contrary, they seemed
tense and set with a muscular and spiritual determination. There,
and in the eyes, was the secret of the certitude with which she
carried the heavy sacks up the steep steps, with never a false step
or overbalance, and emptied them in the grain-bin.

PREVIOUS GROUP HOME SITE HOME NEXT
Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
Change Tag: ~~ 0 ~~
Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.