Pagina 837 de 3800

With an affectation of respect which evidently struck Alexander

unpleasantly, he rode up and saluted.

This unpleasant impression merely flitted over the young and

happy face of the Emperor like a cloud of haze across a clear sky

and vanished. After his illness he looked rather thinner that day

than on the field of Olmutz where Bolkonski had seen him for the

first time abroad, but there was still the same bewitching

combination of majesty and mildness in his fine gray eyes, and on

his delicate lips the same capacity for varying expression and

the same prevalent appearance of goodhearted innocent youth.