Note 4-10 — Eine Studentengeschichte
Reading edition
ins Gesicht (idiom, the definite article for the possess. pronoun), = in sein Gesicht.—The meaning is: The cares of official life had gradually taken from him all his individuality, so that he looked now as grim as the lions which support the shield of arms of Bavaria, and his face, wrinkled and furrowed, resembled the center-shield with its many cracks and zigzags.