daughter. Zinowieff explained his business crudely enough, after the
custom of the country, and the father thanked St. Nicholas for the good
luck he had sent him. He spoke to his daughter, who looked at me and
softly uttered the necessary yes.

Zinowieff then told me that I ought to ascertain that matters were
intact, as I was going to pay for a virgin. I was afraid of offending
her, and would have nothing to do with it; but Zinowieff said the girl
would be mortified if I did not examine her, and that she would be
delighted if I place her in a position to prove before her father and
mother that her conduct had always been virtuous. I therefore made the
examination as modestly as I could, and I found her to be intact. To tell
the truth, I should not have said anything if things had been otherwise.

Zinowieff then gave the hundred roubles to the father, who handed them to
his daughter, and she only took them to return them to her mother. My
servant and coachman were then called in to witness as arrangement of
which they knew nothing.

I called her Zaira, and she got into the carriage and returned with me to
St. Petersburg in her coarse clothes, without a chemise of any kind.
After I had dropped Zinowieff at his lodging I went home, and for four
days I was engaged in collecting and arranging my slave's toilet, not
resting till I had dressed her modestly in the French style. In less than
three months she had learnt enough Italian to tell me what she wanted and
to understand me. She soon loved me, and afterwards she got jealous. But
we shall hear more of her in the following chapter.