Childhood. Boyhood. Youth

Скачать

"Stop a moment, Mimi," said Mamma (now smiling also) to Maria Ivanovna.

"It is impossible to hear anything."

How beautiful Mamma's face was when she smiled! It made her so

infinitely more charming, and everything around her seemed to grow

brighter! If in the more painful moments of my life I could have seen

that smile before my eyes, I should never have known what grief is. In

my opinion, it is in the smile of a face that the essence of what we

call beauty lies. If the smile heightens the charm of the face, then the

face is a beautiful one. If the smile does not alter the face, then the

face is an ordinary one. But if the smile spoils the face, then the face

is an ugly one indeed.

Mamma took my head between her hands, bent it gently backwards, looked

at me gravely, and said: "You have been crying this morning?"

I did not answer. She kissed my eyes, and said again in German: "Why did

you cry?"

When talking to us with particular intimacy she always used this