This mirrorlike gaze and those delicate hands irritated Prince Andrew, he knew not why.

He was unpleasantly struck, too, by the excessive contempt for others that he observed in Speranski, and by the diversity of lines of argument he used to support his opinions.

He made use of every kind of mental device, except analogy, and passed too boldly, it seemed to Prince Andrew, from one to another.

Now he would take up the position of a practical man and condemn dreamers; now that of a satirist, and laugh ironically at his opponents; now grow severely logical, or suddenly rise to the realm of metaphysics.

(This last resource was one he very frequently employed.