ame Schoss, but perhaps it's not, and this Circassian with the
mustache I don't know, but I love her."

"Aren't you cold?" he asked.

They did not answer but began to laugh. Dimmler from the sleigh behind
shouted something--probably something funny--but they could not make out
what he said.

"Yes, yes!" some voices answered, laughing.

"But here was a fairy forest with black moving shadows, and a glitter
of diamonds and a flight of marble steps and the silver roofs of fairy
buildings and the shrill yells of some animals. And if this is really
Melyukovka, it is still stranger that we drove heaven knows where and
have come to Melyukovka," thought Nicholas.

It really was Melyukovka, and maids and footmen with merry faces came
running, out to the porch carrying candles.

"Who is it?" asked someone in the porch.

"The mummers from the count's. I know by the horses," replied some
voices.

CHAPTER XI

Pelageya Danilovna Melyukova, a broadly built, energetic woman wearing
spectacles, sat in the drawing room in a loose dress, surrounded by
her daughters whom she was trying to keep from feeling dull. They were
quietly dropping melted wax into snow and looking at the shadows the wax
figures would throw on the wall, when they heard the steps and voices of
new arrivals in the vestibule.

Hussars, ladies, witches, clowns, and bears, after clearing their
throats and wiping the hoarfrost from their faces in the vestibule,
came into the ballroom where candles were hurriedly lighted. The
clown--Dimmler--and the lady--Nicholas--started a dance. Surrounded by
the screaming children the mummers, covering their faces and disguising
their voices, bowed to their hostess and arranged themselves about the
room.

"Dear me! there's no recognizing them! And Natasha! See whom she looks
like! She really reminds me of somebody. But Herr Dimmler--isn't
he good! I didn't know him! And how he dances. Dear me, there's a
Circassian. Really, how becoming it is to dear Sonya. And who is that?
Well, you have cheered us up! Nikita and Vanya--clear away the tables!
And we were sitting so quietly. Ha, ha, ha!... The hussar, the hussar!
Just like a boy! And the legs!... I can't look at him..." different
voices were saying.

Natasha, the young Melyukovs' favorite, disappeared with them into the
back rooms where a cork and various dressing gowns and male garments
were called for and received from the footman by bare girlish arms from
beh