“His scarred face was inscrutable but she caught the new glint in his volcanic eyes.”

—The Slave Princess

Howard was a dealer in enigmatic characters, usually of the alienated or outcast sort, hence his use of inscrutable immediately brings to mind incongruous or incongruent. His heroes were, in some way, always out of place. Their manliness included making their own faces unreadable to others as was necessary for them to prevail.

in·scru·ta·ble

(ĭn-skro͞o′tə-bəl)

adj.

Difficult to understand or interpret; impenetrable

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin īnscrūtābilis : in-, not; see in-1 + scrūtārī, to scrutinize; see scrutiny.]

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in·scru′ta·bil′i·ty n.

in·scru′ta·bly adv.