through it like gold!"

Malanya Pavlovna was stupid to sanctity, as the saying goes; she
chattered at random, and did not herself quite know what issued from her
mouth--but it was chiefly about Orloff.--Orloff had become, one may say,
the principal interest of her life. She usually entered--no! she
floated into--the room, moving her head in a measured way like a
peacock, came to a halt in the middle of it, with one foot turned out in
a strange sort of way, and holding the pendent sleeve in two fingers
(that must have been the pose which had pleased Orloff once on a time),
she looked about her with arrogant carelessness, as befits a beauty,--
she even sniffed and whispered "The idea!" exactly as though some
important cavalier-adorer were besieging her with compliments,--then
suddenly walked on, clattering her heels and shrugging her shoulders.--
She also took Spanish snuff out of a tiny bonbon box, scooping it out
with a tiny golden spoon, and from time to time, especially when a new
person made his appearance, she raised--not to her eyes, but to her nose
(her vision was excellent)--a double lorgnette in the shape of a pair of
horns, showing off and twisting about her little white hand with one
finger standing out apart.

How many times did Malanya Pavlovna describe to me her wedding in the
Church of the Ascension, "which is on the Arbat Square--such a fine
church!--and all Moscow was present at it ... there was such a crush! 'T
was frightful! There were equipages drawn by six horses, golden
carriages, runners ... one of Count Zavadovsky's runners even fell under
the wheels! And the bishop himself married us,[42] and what an address
he delivered! Everybody wept--wherever I looked there was nothing but
tears, tears ... and the Governor-General's horses were
tiger-coloured.... And how many, many flowers people brought!... They
overwhelmed us with flowers! And one foreigner, a rich, very rich man,
shot himself for love on that occasion, and Orloff was present also....
And approaching Alexyei Sergyeitch he congratulated him and called him a
lucky dog.... 'Thou art a lucky dog, brother gaper!' he said. And in
reply Alexyei Sergyeitch made such a wonderful obeisance, and swept the
plume of his hat along the floor from left to right ... as much as to
say: 'There is a line drawn now, Your Radiance, between you and my
spouse which you must not step across!'--And Orloff, Alexyei
Grigorievitch, immediately understood and lauded h