se, which would form part of the programme and be accompanied by
champagne. The immense price of the tickets (three roubles) tended to
confirm this rumour. "As though one would subscribe for nothing? The
fete is arranged for twenty-four hours, so food must be provided. People
will get hungry." This was how people reasoned in the town. I must admit
that Yulia Mihailovna did much to confirm this disastrous rumour by her
own heedlessness. A month earlier, under the first spell of the great
project, she would babble about it to anyone she met; and even sent a
paragraph to one of the Petersburg papers about the toasts and speeches
arranged for her fete. What fascinated her most at that time was
the idea of these toasts; she wanted to propose them herself and was
continually composing them in anticipation. They were to make clear what
was their banner (what was it? I don't mind betting that the poor dear
composed nothing after all), they were to get into the Petersburg and
Moscow papers, to touch and fascinate the higher powers and then to
spread the idea over all the provinces of Russia, rousing people to
wonder and imitation.

But for toasts, champagne was essential, and as champagne can't be
drunk on an empty stomach, it followed that a lunch was essential too.
Afterwards, when by her efforts a committee had been formed and had
attacked the subject more seriously, it was proved clearly to her at
once that if they were going to dream of banquets there would be very
little left for the governesses, however well people subscribed. There
were two ways out of the difficulty: either Belshazzar's feast with
toasts and speeches, and ninety roubles for the governesses, or a
considerable sum of money with the fete only as a matter of form to
raise it. The committee, however, only wanted to scare her, and had of
course worked out a third course of action, which was reasonable and
combined the advantages of both, that is, a very decent fete in every
respect only without champagne, and so yielding a very respectable sum,
much more than ninety roubles. But Yulia Mihailovna would not agree to
it: her proud spirit revolted from paltry compromise. She decided at
once that if the original idea could not be carried out they should rush
to the opposite extreme, that is, raise an enormous subscription that
would be the envy of other provinces. "The public must understand,"
she said at the end of her flaming speech to the committee, "that
the a