“Imagine a young boy who pretends to be eighteen, but looks fifteen, a slender and hard body with the shoulders of a child, the darkish and slant-eyed face of a Tartar, burned by quick, tender and merry green eyes, the eyes of a puppy amused by everything… His gestures have this abruptness that time has not yet eliminated. The smile is charmingly trusting… On top of all this, naiveté, joy, triumph”