ort, though. Tuzikov is
younger than I am, yet he is half a head taller. But I have a clever face.
I am not good-looking. I know I'm hideous, but I've a clever face. I
mustn't talk too freely; if I fall into his arms all at once, he may
think--Tfoo! how horrible if he should think--!"

Such were the thoughts that excited Kolya while he was doing his utmost to
assume the most independent air. What distressed him most was his being so
short; he did not mind so much his "hideous" face, as being so short. On
the wall in a corner at home he had the year before made a pencil-mark to
show his height, and every two months since he anxiously measured himself
against it to see how much he had gained. But alas! he grew very slowly,
and this sometimes reduced him almost to despair. His face was in reality
by no means "hideous"; on the contrary, it was rather attractive, with a
fair, pale skin, freckled. His small, lively gray eyes had a fearless
look, and often glowed with feeling. He had rather high cheekbones; small,
very red, but not very thick, lips; his nose was small and unmistakably
turned up. "I've a regular pug nose, a regular pug nose," Kolya used to
mutter to himself when he looked in the looking-glass, and he always left
it with indignation. "But perhaps I haven't got a clever face?" he
sometimes thought, doubtful even of that. But it must not be supposed that
his mind was preoccupied with his face and his height. On the contrary,
however bitter the moments before the looking-glass were to him, he
quickly forgot them, and forgot them for a long time, "abandoning himself
entirely to ideas and to real life," as he formulated it to himself.

Alyosha came out quickly and hastened up to Kolya. Before he reached him,
Kolya could see that he looked delighted. "Can he be so glad to see me?"
Kolya wondered, feeling pleased. We may note here, in passing, that
Alyosha's appearance had undergone a complete change since we saw him
last. He had abandoned his cassock and was wearing now a well-cut coat, a
soft, round hat, and his hair had been cropped short. All this was very
becoming to him, and he looked quite handsome. His charming face always
had a good-humored expression; but there was a gentleness and serenity in
his good-humor. To Kolya's surprise, Alyosha came out to him just as he
was, without an overcoat. He had evidently come in haste. He held out his
hand to Kolya at once.

"Here you are at last! How anxious we've been to