which I was present the priest happened to let one of the children slip
through his hands.

"Drugoi!" he cried.

That is, "Give me another." But my surprise may be imagined when I saw
that the father and mother of the child were in an ecstasy of joy; they
were certain that the babe had been carried straight to heaven. Happy
ignorance!

I had a letter from the Florentine Madame Bregonci for her friend the
Venetian Roccolini, who had left Venice to go and sing at the St.
Petersburg Theatre, though she did not know a note of music, and had
never appeared on the stage. The empress laughed at her, and said she
feared there was no opening in St. Petersburg for her peculiar talents,
but the Roccolini, who was known as La Vicenza, was not the woman to lose
heart for so small a check. She became an intimate friend of a
Frenchwoman named Prote, the wife of a merchant who lived with the chief
huntsman. She was at the same time his mistress and the confidante of his
wife Maria Petrovna, who did not like her husband, and was very much
obliged to the Frenchwoman for delivering her from the conjugal
importunities.

This Prote was one of the handsomest women I have ever seen, and
undoubtedly the handsomest in St. Petersburg at that time. She was in the
flower of her age. She had at once a wonderful taste for gallantry and
for all the mysteries of the toilette. In dress she surpassed everyone,
and as she was witty and amusing she captivated all hearts. Such was the
woman whose friend and procuress La Vicenza had become. She received the
applications of those who were in love with Madame Prote, and passed them