Boris Lensky

of a dress! The girl is waiting up-stairs," the maid calls out to Masch

olai has taken her out-doors to distract her, and also so that she may not disfigure herself for the evening. An important event is before her for th

the charm which the great artist for the moment has for Parisia

girl's eyes yet shone with recent tears, she cried out with joy at this message. Throwing ga

he dress--w

be made, declares the girl who brought it. "When one has the fortune to work for

iful

e first time she finds the mirror over her toilet table too small. Her eyes dance, her finger-tips twitch for joy. Incessantly she turns

around Mascha's shoulders. She hurries down the stairs, bursts into the

urns slowly around like a

rl. What joy to let herself be admired by father and brother without

and points to her right arm, which is enveloped to the sh

an this bare, round, slender arm, not statuesque, white as the arm of a married woman of thirty--no, even a trifle

nxious eyes seeking approval in his face which she awaited so securely and now cannot find, it really seems to him that never in his life has he met a lovelier young girl than Mascha. What shoulders, what a figure, so beautifully rounded, without the immature thinness of other seventeen-year-old girls. And what is most charming in this unusual little being, on these plump, d

l as your mother was," s

necessary," says Mascha, now really troubled

ks charming. Yes," he repeated, holding her head down on his shoulder and stroking it, "you are charming, my little dove. You will certainly hear it often enough to-day, and later. Why sh

or praise that she has no sense left for what is the deare

" And, exhilarated by her father's praise, she climbs up on a stool, and, turning her head

the fire flickers over her white dress. "Father, Colia," asks she, somewha

renburg," calls the ser

time to wonder at a pair of very white shoulders in the fullest light, then to see a pair of t

er, Count B?renburg?" asks Lensky, gayly

feet, that is all." Lensky laughs, Nikolai frowns, and Maschenka, with a quick gesture, picks up the formerly discar

chin. "She appears in the world to-day for the first time as a young lady," says he, turning to B?renburg,

ll. "The first evening dress. I congratulate

ea--" now be

nce. "Mademoiselle Jeliagin wrote me asking, if I were not engaged, to dine en famille at her mother's. I was a

me some gentleman would come to dinner, and I was v

says Nikol

My daughter looks like a grown girl; really, sh

. "I did not know that it was to be

ters the case,"

so," repli

ands to reason that a man who has saved my brother's life should not be a mere casual acquaintance to me." Then, be

the temperature falls a couple of d

and her black tulle gown becomes her somewhat too tall and slender figure wonderfully. But although she is but twenty-six, her appearance has already tha

enthusiastically and childishly: "Oh, Anna, how lovely you look--oh

dressed woman before," Anna whispers to her

hrough our old cotillon quarrel." And turning to the others, she explains: "This autumn in Spaa, at a ball of the Marquise d'Arly, I had no favor left for Count B?renburg. He--h-m!--did me the honor to be mortally offended at it." B?renburg, who has forgotten the whole affair as completely

e pearls which our dear dead empress gave papa for mamma

autiful ones," says B?renburg. "My mother possesses a s

ordially. "Mamma told me at first she was frightened at the gift, and said pearls mean tears; then papa ki

ays he,

she also kissed them, and said, with her dear smile: 'Do not forget, Mas

our splendor to every one, I would advise you to take off the pearls for this evening. It is absolutely unsuitable for a g

ys the dangerous vehemence of her nature inherited from her father. "No, never! Never!" she repeats, seizing the necklace w

Anna's head, but Mascha's burst of rage has a subduing effect on his own exciteme

indifferent whether an insignificant little thing like you has a black or a white neckband on. Restrain yourself, my little dove

hard to be mistress of herself, choked down what she could; her unpractised seventeen-year-old self-restraint

ly into air, Lensky looks angry, and Colia murmurs excusingly: "She is very over

ly to B?renburg, he adds: "She lost her mother three years ago, just when she needed her most, and

fter her?" asks Madame Jeliagin,

eed quickly in calming her. She really deserves to stay in her room, and she will be ashamed to come d

ter had behaved like Marie?" A

lai did--run after her to console her," replies he, slowly. "That is, g