"Perhaps, perhaps it is. "The Russian Messenger", too, has also
gone off a bit, using a colloquial expression.

Kollomietzev laughed. It amused him to have said "gone off a
bit." "Mais c'est un journal qui se respecte," he continued, "and
that is the main thing. I am sorry to say that I interest myself
very little in Russian literature nowadays. It has grown so
horribly vulgar. A cook is now made the heroine of a novel. A
mere cook, parole d'honneur! Of course, I shall read Ladislas'
novel. Il y aura le petit mot pour rire, and he writes with a
purpose! He will completely crush the nihilists, and I quite
agree with him. His ideas sont tres correctes."

"That is more than can be said of his past," Valentina Mihailovna
remarked.

"Ah! jeton une voile sur les erreurs de sa jeunesse!"
Kollomietzev exclaimed, pulling off his other glove.

Valentina Mihailovna half-closed her exquisite eyes and looked at
him coquettishly.

"Simion Petrovitch!" she exclaimed, "why do you use so many
French words when speaking Russian? It seems to me rather old-
fashioned, if you will excuse my saying so."

"But, my dear lady, not everyone is such a master of our native
tongue as you are, for instance. I have a very great respect for
the Russian language. There is nothing like it for giving