Seriosha and the desire to shine before so brave a boy? If
so, how contemptible were both the affection and the desire! They alone
form dark spots on the pages of my youthful recollections.

XX -- PREPARATIONS FOR THE PARTY

To judge from the extraordinary activity in the pantry, the shining
cleanliness which imparted such a new and festal guise to certain
articles in the salon and drawing-room which I had long known as
anything but resplendent, and the arrival of some musicians whom Prince
Ivan would certainly not have sent for nothing, no small amount of
company was to be expected that evening.

At the sound of every vehicle which chanced to pass the house I ran
to the window, leaned my head upon my arms, and peered with impatient
curiosity into the street.

At last a carriage stopped at our door, and, in the full belief that
this must be the Iwins, who had promised to come early, I at once ran
downstairs to meet them in the hall.

But, instead of the Iwins, I beheld from behind the figure of the
footman who opened the door two female figures-one tall and wrapped in a
blue cloak trimmed with marten, and the other one short and wrapped in
a green shawl from beneath which a pair of little feet, stuck into fur
boots, peeped forth.

Without paying any attention to my presence in the hall (although I
thought it my duty, on the appearance of these persons to salute them),
the shorter one moved towards the taller, and stood silently in front of
her. Thereupon the tall lady untied the shawl which enveloped the head
of the little one, and unbuttoned the cloak which hid her form; until,
by the time that the footmen had taken charge of these articles and
removed the fur boots, there stood forth from the amorphous chrysalis
a charming girl of twelve, dressed in a short muslin frock, white
pantaloons, and smart black satin shoes. Around her, white neck she wore
a narrow black velvet ribbon, while her head was covered with flaxen
curls which so perfectly suited her beautiful face in front and her bare
neck and shoulders behind that I, would have believed nobody, not even
Karl Ivanitch, if he, or she had told me that they only hung so nicely
because, ever since the morning, they had been screwed up in fragments
of a Moscow newspaper and then warmed with a hot iron. To me it seemed
as though she must have been born with those curls.

The most prominent feature in her face was a pair of unusually large
half-veiled eyes,