The Contemporary (Sovremennik)

to God!.. A little while ago, he was putting on pomade, and curling his hair, and constantly looking at the clock, in order to come to you... I looked, and his tracks were already covered... He left and told no one... And he did not wait for me... This was so that he could flatter his little cousin all alone...

Mikhailo Ivanych. No, mother, my cousin is still so in love with her husband that one is even afraid to approach her...

Tatyana Andrevna. (to Alexandra Semyonovna). You will get tired of it, my dear, you will get tired of it... It is true, you are happy in that you married a young man... But my old one, he was simply repugnant to me from the very first day... He was just as pockmarked and unattractive when he married me... And I was a real beauty... It used to be, at my father’s house, while I was still a maiden, when I would dress up before the guests... I would put on a white dress, curl my hair into ringlets, shoulders and arms bare... Our house was huge: my father was a great millionaire very wealthy man, and even though he was a merchant, he lived better than the nobility... I used to open all the doors from room to room and flutter, and flutter... we had mirrors everywhere on the walls, and I could see myself... Well, my angel, I used to admire myself... Ringlets curling around my neck, my neck full and white, a rosy glow on my cheeks, merry eyes, everywhere full, white, and lush... Well, a cupid, simply a cupid!... And yet I ended up with such a pockmarked one... He has exhausted me, he has ruined me... I would still be a beauty today, if God had not bound me to such a one...

Alexandra Semyonovna. Why then, aunt, did you marry my uncle if you did not like him?..

Tatyana Andrevna. You girls today have taken such liberty that you choose your own grooms, but in the past, maidens were not asked about this... If the groom pleased the father and mother, the daughter had no say in the matter; whomever the parents commanded, she would marry... And my pockmarked one flattered my parents... well, and it was flattering to me that he was a nobleman, and held a high rank government or military office, and he wore a cross around his neck... Well, and so they gave me away... They did not think that although he now wore a star, he was more repugnant than bitter horseradish... And at first, what did he invent: I was always such a merry, lively girl, so he decided to teach me poise and modesty, began to teach me manners and show me how to behave... And then, when my father