Page:Gorky - Reminiscences of Leo Nicolayevitch Tolstoi.djvu/45

 their spurs jingled; they kept step like one man; their faces, too, shone with the self-assurance of strength and youth.

Tolstoi began to grumble at them: "What pompous stupidity! Like animals trained by the whip. . . ."

But when the guardsmen came abreast with him, he stopped, followed them caressingly with his eyes, and said enthusiastically: "How handsome! Old Romans, eh, Liovushka? Their strength and beauty! О Lord! How charming it is when man is handsome, how very charming!"