she even sniffed and whispered “The idea!” exactly as though some important cavalier-adorer were besieging her with compliments,—­then suddenly walked on, clattering her heels and shrugging her shoulders.—­ She also took Spanish snuff out of a tiny bonbon box, scooping it out with a tiny golden spoon, and from time to time, especially when a new person made his appearance, she raised—­not to her eyes, but to her nose (her vision was excellent)—­a double lorgnette in the shape of a pair of horns, showing off and twisting about her little white hand with one finger standing out apart.

How many times did Malanya Pavlovna describe to me her wedding in the Church of the Ascension, “which is on the Arbat Square—­such a fine church!—­and all Moscow was present at it ... there was such a crush!  ’T was frightful!  There were equipages drawn by six horses, golden carriages, runners ... one of Count Zavadovsky’s runners even fell under the wheels!  And the bishop himself married us,[42] and what an address he delivered!  Everybody wept—­wherever I looked there was nothing but tears, tears ... and the Governor-General’s horses were tiger-coloured....  And how many, many flowers people brought!...  They overwhelmed us with flowers!  And one foreigner, a rich, very rich man, shot himself for love on that occasion, and Orloff was present also....  And approaching Alexyei Sergyeitch he congratulated him and called him a lucky dog....  ‘Thou art a lucky dog, brother gaper!’ he said.  And in reply Alexyei Sergyeitch made such a wonderful obeisance, and swept the plume of his hat along the floor from left to right ... as much as to say:  ’There is a line drawn now, Your Radiance, between you and my spouse which you must not step across!’—­And Orloff, Alexyei Grigorievitch, immediately understood and lauded him.—­Oh, what a man he was!  What a man!  And then, on another occasion, Alexis and I were at a ball in his house—­I was already married—­and what magnificent diamond buttons he wore!  And I could not restrain myself, but praised them.  ‘What splendid diamonds you have, Count!’ And thereupon he took a knife from the table, cut off one button and presented it to me—­saying:  ’You have in your eyes, my dear little dove, diamonds a hundredfold finer; just stand before the mirror and compare them.’  And I did stand there, and he stood beside me.—­’Well?  Who is right?’—­says he—­and keeps rolling his eyes all round me.  And then Alexyei Sergyeitch was greatly dismayed; but I said to him:  ‘Alexis,’ I said to him, ’please do not be dismayed; thou shouldst know me better!’ And he answered me:  ’Be at ease, Melanie!’—­And those same diamonds I now have encircling a medallion of Alexyei Grigorievitch—­I think, my dear, that thou hast seen me wear it on my shoulder on festival days, on a ribbon of St. George—­because he was a very brave hero, a cavalier of the Order of St. George:  he burned the Turks!"[43]