The Torrents Of Spring

much as her diamonds; she seemed in a good humour and in high
spirits.
She made Sanin sit beside her, and began talking to him about Paris,
where she was intending to go in a few days, of how sick she was of Germans,
how stupid they were when they tried to be clever, and how inappropriately
clever sometimes when they were stupid; and suddenly,
point-blank, as they say – à brûle pourpoint – asked him, was it true that
he had fought a duel with the very officer who had been there just now,
only a few days ago, on account of a lady?
‘How did you know that?’ muttered Sanin, dumfoundered.
‘The earth is full of rumours, Dimitri Pavlovitch; but anyway, I know
you were quite right, perfectly right, and behaved like a knight. Tell me,
was that lady your betrothed?’
Sanin slightly frowned …
‘There, I won’t, I won’t,’ Maria Nikolaevna hastened to say. ‘You don’t
like it, forgive me, I won’t do it, don’t be angry!’ Polozov came in from
the next room with a newspaper in his hand. ‘What do you want? Or is
dinner ready?’
‘Dinner’ll be ready directly, but just see what I’ve read in the Northern
Bee … Prince Gromoboy is dead.’
Maria Nikolaevna raised her head.
‘Ah! I wish him the joys of Paradise! He used,’ she turned to Sanin, ‘to
fill all my rooms with camellias every February on my birthday, But it
wasn’t worth spending the winter in Petersburg for that. He must have
been over seventy, I should say?’ she said to her husband.
‘Yes, he was. They describe his funeral in the paper. All the court were
present. And here’s a poem too, of Prince Kovrizhkin’s on the occasion.’
‘That’s nice!’
‘Shall I read them? The prince calls him the good man of wise counsel.’
‘No, don’t. The good man of wise counsel? He was simply the goodman
of Tatiana Yurevna. Come to dinner. Life is for the living. Dimitri
Pavlovitch, your arm.’
The dinner was, as on the day before, superb, and the meal was a very
lively one. Maria Nikolaevna knew how to tell a story … a rare gift in a
woman, and especially in a Russian one! She did not restrict herself in
her expressions; her countrywomen received particularly severe treatment
at her hands. Sanin was more than once set laughing by some bold
and well-directed word. Above all, Maria Nikolaevna had no patience
with hypocrisy, cant, and humbug. She discovered it almost everywhere.
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