I do not ask myself that question now.
HEART VERY HARD AND IN THE WRONG PLACE
Thirdly, a beautiful girl of my acquaintance has a face with what her enemy calls “Inspection invited” all over it. That is unbeautiful phrasing, but the charge thus levelled is not without foundation in fact. One hopes that some day there may happen to this girl what there happened once to a beautiful girl. She looked in the glass to see her face, and she saw her heart, and that day all vanity left her.
As a picture of a beautiful girl I give in conclusion the following:—
The Girl with the Face, described by one who knew her.
She used to pass my windows.
She had a face of quite perfect loveliness, the mouth and eyes very merry, and flashing brown hair that hung open to her waist.
She was slightly deformed, her figure being thrown on one side, like the leaf of a begonia. I never liked the leaf of a begonia until I came to see her.
In all I may have seen her a hundred times, then she ceased passing my windows, and after a while they brought me news that she was dead. By special favour, they let me see her lying in her coffin, and this is how she looked:—Her mouth, that had always been very merry, was quite grave, and her hands were folded on her breast. They had put a rose in one of them, and it laid its soft round cheek against her breast. Some of them—this vexes me still as I write it—had tried to lay her hair about her so as to hide that slight deformity that made her lie like a begonia leaf.