his enchanting voice:

"Well, and is it any gayer in your Paris, or Nice? Why, it must be
confessed--mirth, youth and laughter have vanished forever out of human
life, and it is scarcely possible that they will ever return. One must
regard people with more patience, it seems to me. Who knows, perhaps
for all those sitting here, below, the present evening is a rest, a
holiday?"

"The speech for the defense," put in Chaplinsky in his calm manner.

But Rovinskaya quickly turned around to the men, and her long emerald
eyes narrowed. And this with her served as a sign of wrath, from which
even crowned personages committed follies at times. However, she
immediately restrained herself and continued languidly:

"I don't understand what you are talking about. I don't understand even
what we came here for. For there are no longer any spectacles in the
world. Now I, for instance, have seen bull-fights in Seville, Madrid
and Marseilles--an exhibition which does not evoke anything save
loathing. I have also seen boxing and wrestling nastiness and
brutality. I also happened to participate in a tiger hunt, at which I
sat under a baldachin on the back of a big, wise white elephant ... in
a word, you all know this well yourselves. And out of all my great,
chequered, noisy life, from which I have grown old ..."

"Oh, what are you saying, Ellena Victorovna!" said Chaplinsky with a
tender reproach.

"Abandon compliments, Volodya! I know myself that I'm still young and
beautiful of body, but, really, it seems to me at times that I am
ninety. So worn out has my soul become. I continue. I say, that during
all my life only three strong impressions have sunk into my soul. The
first, while still a girl, when I saw a cat stealing upon a
cock-sparrow, and I with horror and with interest watched its movements
and the vigilant gaze of the bird. Up to this time I don't know myself
which I sympathized with more: the skill of the cat or the slipperiness
of the sparrow. The cock-sparrow proved the quicker. In a moment he
flew up on a tree and began from there to pour down upon the cat such
sparrow swearing that I would have turned red for shame if I had
understood even one word. While the cat, as though it had been wronged,
stuck up its tail like a chimney and tried to pretend to itself that
nothing out of the way had taken place. Another time I had to sing in
an opera a duet with a certain great artist ..."

"With whom?" asked the baroness quic