“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 account.”
“Why so?”
“Because, the other day, there arrived from Berlin a German and his wife—persons of some importance; and, it chanced that, when taking a walk, I spoke to them in German without having properly compassed the Berlin accent.”
“Indeed?”
“Yes: and this action on my part the Baron held to be an insult, and complained about it to the General, who yesterday dismissed me from his employ.”