looking resplendently beautiful in fashionably oversized tails and frilly shirt , brass buttons and vermilion cummerbund , kates doorman-thief worked the front of the house like an orchestra conductor ; heels together , ministering to this enquiry and that problem , assuring three young american women that there were no more seats left in that part of the teatro , apologizing in the most delicately charming manner with a nod , a little obsequious nod , a plaster on his forehead flashing from beneath curly , black locks , always the obsequious nod and fervent smile ; indulging a brusque mans rudeness , tactfully yet firmly holding his ground , turning the complaint over to another , lesser stooge , with a nod ; all the while his eyes , those perfectly gorgeous brown eyes reading his patrons with such condescension , such lan , such heroic compassion .