Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/30

of a fair, rather delicate adolescent, cursed with a tendency to anaemia and consumption; he had a reflective, somewhat intense expression of countenance, a broad, roundish forehead, cheeks the colour of a rose on the fade, whilst a precocious fire burnt in a pair of large, dark-blue coloured eyes, akin to the violet of amethyst, or the purple of the clouds and waves at sunset. His head, somewhat too massive, seemed with its weight to crush his sloping shoulders; his limbs were feeble, and his chest devoid of firmness. The weakly constitution of the little Dykgrave would have exposed him to the rough horseplay of his fellow-pupils had he not escaped this by the prestige of his intelligence, a prestige that had its effect even on the professors. All respected his need of solitude and reverie, his propensity to avoid the customary amusements, his liking to walk alone in the depths of the park, with no companion save a favourite author, or, more frequently, contenting himself with the society of his own thoughts. His ill-health still further increased his susceptibility. Headaches and intermittent fevers kept him often a-bed, isolating him for several days at a stretch.