placed about the room), was stirred from time to time by a slight
breeze from without, blowing gently over the richly grown garden.

What a charming picture! And the mistress herself, Valentina
Mihailovna Sipiagina, put the finishing touch to it, gave it
meaning and life. She was a tall woman of about thirty, with dark
brown hair, a fresh dark complexion, resembling the Sistine
Madonna, with wonderfully deep, velvety eyes. Her pale lips were
somewhat too full, her shoulders perhaps too square, her hands
rather too large, but, for all that, anyone seeing her as she
flitted gracefully about the drawing room, bending from her
slender waist to sniff at the flowers with a smile on her lips,
or arranging some Chinese vase, or quickly readjusting her glossy
hair before the looking-glass, half-closing her wonderful eyes,
anyone would have declared that there could not be a more
fascinating creature.

A pretty curly-haired boy of about nine burst into the room and
stopped suddenly on catching sight of her. He was dressed in a
Highland costume, his legs bare, and was very much befrizzled and
pomaded.

"What do you want, Kolia?" Valentina Mihailovna asked. Her voice
was as soft and velvety as her eyes.

"Mamma," the boy began in confusion, "auntie sent me to get some
lilies-of-the-valley for her room. . . . She hasn't got any--"

Valentina Mihailovna put her hand under her little boy's chin and
raised his pomaded head.