r whole figure--upright, rugged, and
commanding as it was--completed the general awe in which she was held.
As she inspected her new abode she ordered her chair to be stopped at
intervals in order that, with finger extended towards some article of
furniture, she might ply the respectfully smiling, yet secretly
apprehensive, landlord with unexpected questions. She addressed them to
him in French, although her pronunciation of the language was so bad
that sometimes I had to translate them. For the most part, the
landlord's answers were unsatisfactory, and failed to please her; nor
were the questions themselves of a practical nature, but related,
generally, to God knows what.

For instance, on one occasion she halted before a picture which, a poor
copy of a well-known original, had a mythological subject.

"Of whom is this a portrait?" she inquired.

The landlord explained that it was probably that of a countess.

"But how know you that?" the old lady retorted.

"You live here, yet you cannot say for certain! And why is the picture
there at all? And why do its eyes look so crooked?"

To all these questions the landlord could return no satisfactory reply,
despite his floundering endeavours.

"The blockhead!" exclaimed the Grandmother in Russian.

Then she proceeded on her way--only to repeat the same story in front
of a Saxon statuette which she had sighted from afar, and had
commanded, for some reason or another, to be brought to her. Finally,
she inquired of the landlord what was the value of the carpet in her
bedroom, as well as where the said carpet had been manufactured; but,
the landlord could do no more than promise to make inquiries.

"What donkeys these people are!" she commented. Next, she turned her
attention to the bed.

"What a huge counterpane!" she exclaimed. "Turn it back, please." The
lacqueys did so.

"Further yet, further yet," the old lady cried. "Turn it RIGHT back.
Also, take off those pillows and bolsters, and lift up the feather bed."

The bed was opened for her inspection.

"Mercifully it contains no bugs," she remarked.

"Pull off the whole thing, and then put on my own pillows and sheets.
The place is too luxurious for an old woman like myself. It is too
large for any one person. Alexis Ivanovitch, come and see me whenever
you are not teaching your pupils."

"After tomorrow I shall no longer be in the General's service," I
replied, "but merely living in the hotel on my own accoun