Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume XIV).djvu/215

Rh crimped little yellow curls on her forehead, and painted eyebrows. She invariably wore a pyramidal cap with pink ribbons, a high ruff round her neck, a short white dress, and prunella slippers with red heels; and over her dress she wore a jacket of blue satin, with a sleeve hanging loose from her right shoulder. This was precisely the costume in which she was arrayed on St. Peter's Day in the year 1789! On that day she went, being still a girl, with her relations to the Hodinskoe field to see the famous boxing-match arranged by Orlov. 'And Count Alexey Grigorievitch' (oh, how often I used to hear this story!) 'noticing me, approached, bowed very low, taking his hat in both hands, and said: "Peerless beauty," said he, "why have you hung that sleeve from your shoulder? Do you, too, wish to try a tussle with me? By all means; only I will tell you beforehand you have vanquished me—I give in! And I am your captive." And every one was looking at us and wondering.' And that very costume she had worn continually ever since. 'Only I didn't wear a cap, but a hat à la bergère de Trianon; and though I was powdered, yet my hair shone through it, positively shone through it like gold!' Malania Pavlovna was foolish to the point of 'holy innocence,' as it is called; she chattered quite at random, as though she were hardly aware herself of what dropped from her