besides the society matron there was : a tall gentleman in a slightly out-of date black suit who sat with sufficient poise to signify his stature in the society ; a shorter , hazardously dressed man with wild eyes , a bushy black beard and thick eyebrows ; a thin , earnest young man mr. white could only think of as `` pale poet '' ; and a handsome young woman with long brownish-blonde hair and chestnut eyes who always looked like she was about to laugh but never did .