“Do you know, Anna Grigorievna, it simply breaks one’s heart to see to what a pitch immorality has already attained!”

“But all the men are wild about her, though I must confess that, to my mind, there is nothing in her.”

“She is intolerably affected.”

“Ah, my life, Anna Grigorievna; she is a statue, and there is not a particle of expression in her face.”

“Yes, how affected, how affected she is! Heavens, how affected! I do not know who taught her, but never in my life have I seen a woman put on so many airs!”

“She’s a perfect statue, my love, and as pallid as death.”

“Oh, don’t say that, Sophia Ivanovna! She rouges outrageously.”

“Why, what are you saying, Anna Grigorievna? She’s chalk, chalk, the purest chalk.”

“My dear, I sat beside her: the rouge on her cheeks is a finger thick, and falls off in cakes like stucco. Her mother taught her to use it: she was a coquette herself, and the daughter will surpass the mother.”

“Well, now, excuse me, but I am ready to sacrifice my children, my husband, my whole fortune, this very instant, if she uses a single drop, or an atom, or even a shadow, of rouge.”

“Ah! good heavens, what are you saying, Sophia Ivanovna?” said the charming lady, clasping her hands.

“Why, really, Anna Grigorievna, you say such things that I can only stare at you in amazement,” said the nice lady, clasping her hands in her turn.

It may seem strange to the reader that these two ladies should be unable to agree as to what they had seen at almost one and the same time. But this kind of thing happens very frequently. If one lady looks at an object, it turns out perfectly white; but let another lady look at it, and it will appear red—red as a cranberry.

“Now, this will prove to you that she is pale,” went on the charming lady: “I remember now that I was sitting beside Maniloff; and I said to him, ‘See how pale she is!’ Truly, one needs to be as foolish as our gentlemen are to laud her. But that charmer of ours. Ah, how repulsive he seemed to me! You cannot conceive, Anna Grigorievna, to what a degree he seemed repulsive to me!”

“All the same, there were some ladies who were not entirely indifferent to him.”

“Do you mean me, Anna Grigorievna? Why, you can never say that, never, never!”

“No, I was not speaking of you: just as though there were no one else but you!”

“Never, never, Anna Grigorievna! Permit me to remark to you, that I know myself very well; but perhaps what you say might be applied to certain ladies who affect to be unapproachable.”

“You must excuse me, Sophia Ivanovna, and allow me to inform you that such scandalous statements have never been connected with my name. With some other, possibly, but not with mine; and you must allow me to tell you so.”

“Why have you taken offence? There were other women there: there were even some who seated themselves near the door, in order to be nearer to him.”

Now, after these words, spoken by the nice lady, a tempest ought inevitably to have followed: but, to the intense amazement of both ladies, they each suddenly calmed down, and nothing whatever came of it.