GR translation: a ground that by now has gathered

[Mike Jing]

V425.12-20 (P432.12-20)   Pökler scratches at a graying 48-hour beard,
bites at lips very chapped, as if he has spent most of the late winter
outside: he has a winter look. Around his eyes, over the years, has grown a
ruinous system of burst capillaries, shadows, folds, crowsfeet, a ground
that by now has gathered in the simple, direct eyes of his younger and
poorer days . . . no. Something was in them, even then, something others
saw and knew they could use, and found how to. Something Pökler missed.
He’s spent enough of his life looking into mirrors. He really ought to
remember. . . .

What is the meaning of the word "ground" here?
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