invariably played the most
important part at all the regimental affairs--the amateur theatricals,
the social evenings, the afternoon teas. If the captain's wife was not
to be present, it was a foregone conclusion that the affair would not
be a success.

The most important point was that Mrs. Zarubkin had the untarnished
reputation of being the best-dressed of all the ladies. She was always
the most distinguished looking at the annual ball. Her gown for the
occasion, ordered from Moscow, was always chosen with the greatest
regard for her charms and defects, and it was always exquisitely
beautiful. A new fashion could not gain admittance to the other ladies
of the regiment except by way of the captain's wife. Thanks to her
good taste in dressing, the stately blonde was queen at all the balls
and in all the salons of Chmyrsk. Another advantage of hers was that
although she was nearly forty she still looked fresh and youthful, so
that the young officers were constantly hovering about her and paying
her homage.

November was a very lively month in the regiment's calendar. It was on
the tenth of November that the annual ball took place. The ladies, of
course, spent their best efforts in preparation for this event.
Needless to say that in these arduous activities, Abramka Stiftik, the
ladies' tailor, played a prominent role. He was the one man in Chmyrsk
who had any understanding at all for the subtle art of the feminine
toilet. Preparations had begun in his shop in August already. Within
the last weeks his modest parlour--furnished with six shabby chairs
placed about a round table, and a fly-specked mirror on the wall--the
atmosphere heavy with a smell of onions and herring, had been filled
from early morning to the evening hours with the most charming and
elegant of the fairer sex. There was trying-on and discussion of
styles and selection of material. It was all very nerve-racking for
the ladies.

The only one who had never appeared in this parlour was the captain's
wife. That had been a thorn in Abramka's flesh. He had spent days and
nights going over in his mind how he could rid this lady of the, in
his opinion, wretched habit of ordering her clothes from Moscow. For
this ball, however, as she herself had told him, she had not ordered a
dress but only material from out of town, from which he deduced that
he was to make the gown for her. But there was only one week left
before the ball, and still she had not come to hi