im.--Oh, what a man he
was! What a man! And then, on another occasion, Alexis and I were at a
ball in his house--I was already married--and what magnificent diamond
buttons he wore! And I could not restrain myself, but praised them.
'What splendid diamonds you have, Count!' And thereupon he took a knife
from the table, cut off one button and presented it to me--saying: 'You
have in your eyes, my dear little dove, diamonds a hundredfold finer;
just stand before the mirror and compare them.' And I did stand there,
and he stood beside me.--'Well? Who is right?'--says he--and keeps
rolling his eyes all round me. And then Alexyei Sergyeitch was greatly
dismayed; but I said to him: 'Alexis,' I said to him, 'please do not be
dismayed; thou shouldst know me better!' And he answered me: 'Be at
ease, Melanie!'--And those same diamonds I now have encircling a
medallion of Alexyei Grigorievitch--I think, my dear, that thou hast
seen me wear it on my shoulder on festival days, on a ribbon of St.
George--because he was a very brave hero, a cavalier of the Order of St.
George: he burned the Turks!"[43]

Notwithstanding all this, Malanya Pavlovna was a very kind woman; she
was easy to please.--"She doesn't nag you, and she doesn't sneer at
you," the maids said of her.--Malanya Pavlovna was passionately fond of
all sweets, and a special old woman, who occupied herself with nothing
but the preserves, and therefore was called the preserve-woman, brought
to her, half a score of times in a day, a Chinese plate now with
candied rose-leaves, again with barberries in honey, or orange sherbet.
Malanya Pavlovna feared solitude--dreadful thoughts come then--and was
almost constantly surrounded by female hangers-on whom she urgently
entreated: "Talk, talk! Why do you sit there and do nothing but warm
your seats?"--and they began to twitter like canary-birds. Being no less
devout than Alexyei Sergyeitch, she was very fond of praying; but as,
according to her own words, she had not learned to recite prayers well,
she kept for that purpose the widow of a deacon, who prayed so tastily!
She would never stumble to all eternity! And, in fact, that deacon's
widow understood how to utter prayerful words in an irrepressible sort
of way, without a break even when she inhaled or exhaled her breath--and
Malanya Pavlovna listened and melted with emotion. She had another widow
also attached to her service; the latter's duty consisted in telling her
stories at ni