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RUDIN attracted at the same time. Alexandra Pavlovna had the glance and the smile of a child; other ladies found her a little simple. Could one wish for anything more?

‘Darya Mihailovna sent you to me, did you say?’ she asked Pandalevsky.

‘Yes; she sent me,’ he answered, pronouncing the letter s like the English th. ‘She particularly wishes and told me to beg you very urgently to be so good as to dine with her to-day. She is expecting a new guest whom she particularly wishes you to meet’

‘Who is it?’

‘A certain Muffel, a baron, a gentleman of the bed-chamber from Petersburg. Darya Mihailovna made his acquaintance lately at the Prince Garin’s, and speaks of him in high terms as an agreeable and cultivated young man. His Excellency the baron is interested, too, in literature, or more strictly speakingah! what an exquisite butterfly! pray look at it!more strictly speaking, in political economy. He has written an essay on some very interesting question, and wants to submit it to Darya Mihailovna’s criticism.’ 13