evening walks, gathering mushrooms; Lubkov preferred picnics,
fireworks, hunting. He used to get up picnics three times a week,
and Ariadne, with an earnest and inspired face, used to write a
list of oysters, champagne, sweets, and used to send me into Moscow
to get them, without inquiring, of course, whether I had money. And
at the picnics there were toasts and laughter, and again mirthful
descriptions of how old his wife was, what fat lap-dogs his mother
had, and what charming people his creditors were.

Lubkov was fond of nature, but he regarded it as something long
familiar and at the same time, in reality, infinitely beneath himself
and created for his pleasure. He would sometimes stand still before
some magnificent landscape and say: "It would be nice to have tea
here."

One day, seeing Ariadne walking in the distance with a parasol, he
nodded towards her and said:

"She's thin, and that's what I like; I don't like fat women."

This made me wince. I asked him not to speak like that about women
before me. He looked at me in surprise and said:

"What is there amiss in my liking thin women and not caring for fat
ones?"

I made no answer. Afterwards, being in very good spirits and a
trifle elevated, he said:

"I've noticed Ariadne Grigoryevna likes you. I can't understand why