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'How did you know that?' muttered Sanin, dumfoundered

'The earth is full of rumours, Diht, perfectly right, and behaved like a knight Tell htly frowned

'There, I won't, I won't,' Maria Nikolaevna hastened to say 'You don't like it, forgive ry!' Polozov came in from the next room with a newspaper in his hand 'What do you want? Or is dinner ready?'

'Dinner'll be ready directly, but just see what I've read in the Northern BeePrince Gromoboy is dead'

Maria Nikolaevna raised her head

'Ah! I wish him the joys of Paradise! He used,' she turned to Sanin, 'to fill all my rooms with camellias every February onthe winter in Petersburg for that He must have been over seventy, I should say?' she said to her husband

'Yes, he was They describe his funeral in the paper All the court were present And here's a poem too, of Prince Kovrizhkin's on the occasion'

'That's nice!'

'Shall I read theood ood ood Dimitri Pavlovitch, your arm'

The dinner was, as on the day before, superb, and the meal was a very lively one Maria Nikolaevna kne to tell a storya rare gift in a woman, and especially in a Russian one! She did not restrict herself in her expressions; her countrywomen received particularly severe treat by some bold and well-directed word Above all, Maria Nikolaevna had no patience with hypocrisy, cant, and hu She discovered it almost everywhere She, as it were, plus in which she had begun life She told rather queer anecdotes of her relations in the days of her childhood, spoke of herself as quite as much of a clodhopper as Natalya Kirilovna Narishkin It becareat deal e

Polozov ate meditatively, drank attentively, and only occasionally cast first on his wife, then on Sanin, his lightish, di, but, in reality, very keen eyes

'What a clever darling you are!' cried Maria Nikolaevna, turning to him; 'hoell you carried out all ive you a kiss on your forehead for it, but you're not very keen after kisses'