It is popular in some quarters to pooh-pooh, the sense of sin, or to
smile away the seriousness of sin.
Alfred de Musset, when he was young (the same fact is told of
Merimee), once, being very much scolded for a childish freak,
went away in tears, deeply penitent, when he heard his parents
say, after the door was shut: “Poor boy, he thinks himself
quite a criminal!” The thought that his misdeed was not so very
serious, and that his repentance was mere childishness, wounded
him deeply, and the impression remained engraved on his memory
forever. (Text.)
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