Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Wednesday, 23 August 1882

Instead of working properly at any study, I go walking — yes, mademoiselle takes artists' walks and observes! I went twice to the children's home, in the morning and the afternoon. The directress is already my friend [marginal note: thanks to a box of tin soldiers administered to her son]; as for the children, on my second visit, thanks to a charitable offering of sweets, they surrounded me, pressing close around my skirt like a little flock of ravishing creatures. All those trusting, innocent, still-vague eyes; and all of them following me with little steps on their still-unsteady legs. Then they were made to sit down, and while playing, without seeming to notice anything, the better-behaved ones began to recite, casting a glance at me from time to time to see the effect.
The moment I am home I make a sketch: Sinite parvulas venire ad me. Jesus and the children. Oh! if only one had talent.

Notes

Latin: "Suffer the little children to come unto me" (Mark 10:14). ↩