Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Daria Michaelovna Lassounski's house was perhaps the principal one in the province of . Very large, built of stone from designs of Rastelli, in the style of the last century, it stood majestically on the top of a hill at the foot of which flowed one of the principal rivers of Central Russia. Daria Miehaelovna was a lady of rank, rich, and the widow of a Privy Counsellor. Constantine used to say that she knew the whole of Europe, and that the whole of Europe knew her — but Europe had very slight acquaintance with her, and even at St. Petersburg she had no very prominent position; but, on the other hand, at Moscow every one knew and visited her. She belonged to the best society, and was considered very eccentric ; not too amiable, but extremely clever. In her youth she had beenvery pretty. Then poets had written verses to her, young men had fallen in love with her, and many eminent men had paid her attention. But twenty-five or thirty years had passed, and every trace of Daria's charms had disappeared. " Is it possible," every one would say to himself as he first saw her, " is it possible that this thin, sallow, sharp- nosed woman, who is not yet old, should have ever been a beauty. Is it she who used to inspire poets ? " And every one was amazed at the mutability of earthly things. It is true that Pandalewski used to say that Daria's eyes had preserved their wonderful charm, but then, he used to say that the whole of Europe knew her. Every summer Daria Michaelovna used to come to her place in the country, with her children (a girl of seventeen, and two boys of nine and ten), and keep open house; that is to say, she used to receive the men ; the women, and especially the unmarried women, of the province she could not abide. In return she had to endure their backbiting. A... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.