his morning interview, and had dressed so simply
yet elegantly _a la Madame Recamier_! But Darya Mihailovna soon left off
questioning him. She began to tell him about herself, her youth, and
the people she had known. Rudin gave a sympathetic attention to
her lucubrations, though--a curious fact--whatever personage Darya
Mihailovna might be talking about, she always stood in the foreground,
she alone, and the personage seemed to be effaced, to slink away in the
background, and to disappear. But to make up for that, Rudin learnt
in full detail precisely what Darya Mihailovna had said to a certain
distinguished statesman, and what influence she had had on such and such
a celebrated poet. To judge from Darya Mihailovna's accounts, one might
fancy that all the distinguished men of the last five-and-twenty years
had dreamt of nothing but how they could make her acquaintance, and
gain her good opinion. She spoke of them simply, without particular
enthusiasm or admiration, as though they were her daily associates,
calling some of them queer fellows. As she talked of them, like a rich
setting round a worthless stone, their names ranged themselves in a
brilliant circlet round the principal name--around Darya Mihailovna.

Rudin listened, smoking a cigarette, and said little. He could speak
well and liked speaking; carrying on a conversation was not in his line,
though he was also a good listener. All men--if only they had not been
intimidated by him to begin with--opened their hearts with confidence
in his presence; he followed the thread of another man's narrative so
readily and sympathetically. He had a great deal of good-nature--that
special good-nature of which men are full, who are accustomed to feel
themselves superior to others. In arguments he seldom allowed his
antagonist to express himself fully, he crushed him by his eager,
vehement and passionate dialectic.

Darya Mihailovna expressed herself in Russian. She prided herself on her
knowledge of her own language, though French words and expressions
often escaped her. She intentionally made use of simple popular terms of
speech; but not always successfully. Rudin's ear was not outraged by the
strange medley of language on Darya Mihailovna's lips, indeed he hardly
had an ear for it.

Darya Mihailovna was exhausted at last and letting her head fall on the
cushions of her easy-chair she fixed her eyes on Rudin and was silent.

'I understand now,' began Rudin, speaking slow