ozevsky to St

, Thu

an, my go

shadow. It is here that your letter reaches me. You tell me to write to you about myself. To-day, the 15th of Octo

ound, says that the gift of Destiny is precisely these four-and-twenty years of mine

s a whirlwi

d at me. In a phaeton I saw the brazen and beautiful Princess Theodora, blonde and torrid as a Mexican landscape. She was resplendent in am

esses parted over her brow enclosed the narrow oval of her face like soft black wings. Beside her sat little Miriam Grey, cl

fe is an excell

hat are y

r y

evs

next

Stepan,

voice that was perfectly ludicrous. When I drilled my company I could hear myself giving the words of command in an imploring tone which I still blush to remember. I

ing me by the arm. "You are going to make the acquaintance of a superior bein

tically. "Sad and superior b

ke this one,

ng, found myself face to face with the subject of our conversation, a tall

, she said: "That you should like me is of no importance.

. "Madame," and I was surprised to feel that I spoke with sincerity

then she spoke quietly: "

e brief and daring reply and by the flash of that c

evening. When she left, she barely glanced a

ged eyes and gazed at me; then her lashes fel

, desperately in love. Ah, Stepan, lov

Boz

in the eyes of the gallant young Pole-the handsomest officer in the Imperial Guard? I repeated to myself his disquieting epithets: "flower-like," "ethereal," "inscrutable"; and in my room at night whe

ver direction I turned I was sure to encounter his radiant smile and his flashing glance. His passi

made up my mind to spe

ingly, "I think we ought

e to?" aske

ywhere away

hy

"I am afraid," I stammered,

ly, pouring some vodka into

Bozevsky is fallin

you, dushka?" laughed Vassili. "As

over, he lit his

··

sery where Tioka and Tania, li

orite picture-an artless painting of the Virgin Mary, holding in he

ide the two litt

in her gray flannel dressing-gown,

owards the ceiling her long virginal face. "And tak

when I also shall be like Aunt Sonia; when I also shall be content to wear gray

t that day of