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The young Princess Bolkonskaya had brought some work in a

gold-embroidered velvet bag. Her pretty little upper lip, on

which a delicate dark down was just perceptible, was too short

for her teeth, but it lifted all the more sweetly, and was

especially charming when she occasionally drew it down to meet

the lower lip. As is always the case with a thoroughly attractive

woman, her defect-the shortness of her upper lip and her

half-open mouth-seemed to be her own special and peculiar form of

beauty. Everyone brightened at the sight of this pretty young

woman, so soon to become a mother, so full of life and health,

and carrying her burden so lightly. Old men and dull dispirited

young ones who looked at her, after being in her company and

talking to her a little while, felt as if they too were becoming,

like her, full of life and health.