“It is the expression of the thing that constitutes its chief feature.”
“Yes.”
“What is that expression? It is a compound of alarm and hatred.”
“Yes,” said the doctor, coming to the table and glancing at the thing, and then returning to his post at the mantelpiece.
“Yes, I should say that is the expression—or at all events, a very good imitation of it.”
“Well,” went on the other, “from the expression on this face I construct the following hypothesis. Leloir suddenly entered his master’s bedroom and found a stranger there, a stranger to whom the face whose picture we see here belonged. He surprised him, perhaps, committing some act, to which we have no clue; anyhow, he surprised him. Hence the expression.”
“I can understand that causing the expression of alarm. How about the ferocious hatred we see here—”
“Mark you,” said Freyberger, “I did not say terror. I said alarm. If you have ever alarmed a man and been attacked by him, you will understand how closely allied alarm and hatred of the most ferocious description may be. I have experienced the fact several times, I assure you, in the course of my professional work.”
“I can imagine so.”
“Well, granting my supposition,” continued the other, “we may ask ourselves, what was this man doing when Leloir surprised him? It was not the face of the creature that killed Leloir with shock, we may presume, but the act he was committing. What was that act?”