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"From a friend of a person very well known to you," replied Tomsky, "from a very distinguished man." "And whom is this distinguished man?" "His name is Hermann." Lizaveta made no reply, but her hands and feet lost all sense of feeling. "This Hermann," continued Tomsky, "is a man of romantic personality. He has the profile of a Napoleon, and the soul of a Mephistopheles.
"But if there is one person that I cannot understand, it is my grandmother, the Countess Anna Fedorovna!" "How so?" inquired the guests. "I cannot understand," continued Tomsky, "how it is that my grandmother does not punt." "Then you do not know the reason why?" "No, really; I haven't the faintest idea. But let me tell you the story.
* Said of a card when it wins or loses in the quickest possible time. "Mere chance!" said one of the guests. "A tale!" observed Hermann. "Perhaps they were marked cards!" said a third. "I do not think so," replied Tomsky, gravely.
"Are there any Russian novels? Send me one, my dear, pray send me one!" "Good-by, grandmother. I am in a hurry. . . . Goodby, Lizavetta Ivanovna. What made you think that Naroumoff was in the Engineers?" And Tomsky left the boudoir. Lizaveta Ivanovna was left alone. She laid aside her work, and began to look out of the window.
And the Countess for the hundredth time related to her grandson one of her anecdotes. "Come, Paul," said she, when she had finished her story, "help me to get up. Lizanka,* where is my snuffbox?" And the Countess with her three maids went behind a screen to finish her toilette. Tomsky was left alone with the young lady.
Three ladies approaching him with the question: "oubli ou regret?" interrupted the conversation, which had become so tantalizingly interesting to Lizaveta. The lady chosen by Tomsky was the Princess Pauline herself. She succeeded in effecting a reconciliation with him during the numerous turns of the dance, after which he conducted her to her chair.
"Yes; everything went off very pleasantly, and dancing was kept up until five o'clock. How charming Eletskaia was!" "But, my dear, what is there charming about her? Isn't she like her grandmother, the Princess Daria Petrovna? By the way, she must be very old, the Princess Daria Petrovna?" "How do you mean, old?" cried Tomsky, thoughtlessly, "she died seven years ago."
But hearing that Naroumoff was not an Engineer, she regretted that by her thoughtless question, she had betrayed her secret to the volatile Tomsky. Hermann was the son of a German who had become a naturalized Russian, and from whom he had inherited a small capital.
But, strange to say, that very evening at the ball, Tomsky, being piqued with the young Princess Pauline N , who, contrary to her usual custom, did not flirt with him, wished to revenge himself by assuming an air of indifference: he therefore engaged Lizaveta Ivanovna, and danced an endless mazurka with her.
The portrait, sketched by Tomsky, coincided with the picture she had formed within her own mind, and, thanks to the latest romances, the ordinary countenance of her admirer became invested with attributes capable of alarming her and fascinating her imagination at the same time.
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