boxes to be taken side by side, and, inviting all her acquaintances,
would set off to the theatre or even to a masquerade; in summer she
would drive for a trip out of town to some spot as far off as
possible. The next day she would complain of a headache, groan and
keep her bed; but within two months the same craving for something
'out of the common' would break out in her again. That was just what
happened now. Some one chanced to refer to the beautiful
scenery of Tsaritsino before her, and Anna Vassilyevna suddenly
announced an intention of driving to Tsaritsino the day after
tomorrow. The household was thrown into a state of bustle; a
messenger galloped off to Moscow for Nikolai Artemyevitch; with him
galloped the butler to buy wines, pies, and all sorts of provisions;
Shubin was commissioned to hire an open carriage--the coach alone was
not enough--and to order relays of horses to be ready; a page was
twice despatched to Bersenyev and Insarov with two different notes of
invitation, written by Zoya, the first in Russian, the second in
French; Anna Vassilyevna herself was busy over the dresses of the
young ladies for the expedition. Meanwhile the _partie du plaisir_ was
very near coming to grief. Nikolai Artemyevitch arrived from Moscow in
a sour, ill-natured, _frondeurish_ frame of mind. He was still sulky
with Augustina Christianovna; and when he heard what the plan was,
he flatly declared that he would not go; that to go trotting from
Kuntsovo to Moscow and from Moscow to Tsaritsino, and then from
Tsaritsino again to Moscow, from Moscow again to Kuntsovo, was a piece
of folly; and, 'in fact,' he added, 'let them first prove to my
satisfaction, that one can be merrier on one spot of the globe than
another spot, and I will go.' This, of course, no one could prove to
his satisfaction, and Anna Vassilyevna was ready to throw up the
_partie du plaisir_ for lack of a solid escort; but she recollected
Uvar Ivanovitch, and in her distress she sent to his room for him,