5tills

©.

“You are beautiful… but you have changed. These days you cast rapid, calculating, sidelong glances. Your gaze used to be direct, open, and without any disguise. Your mouth is an expression of discontent and hunger. It used only to be soft. Your complexion has become pallid, you use make-up. Your fine, broad forehead now has four creases above each eyebrow. And this fine contour from the ear to the chin—it’s no longer quite so evident. That’s where complacency and indolence reside. Look here, at the bridge of the nose, why do you sneer so often, Maria? Beneath your eyes, those sharp, barely visible wrinkles of boredom and impatience.”