"I thought you were going to dress up as the dog, Dianka," explained Varvara.
"What a notion!" replied Grushina with a laugh, "not Dianka, but the Goddess, Diana."
Varvara and Grushina dressed for the ball at Grushina's house. Grushina's costume was excessively scanty: bare arms and shoulders, bare neck, bare chest, her legs bare to the knee, light slippers, and a light dress of linen with a red border against the white flesh—it was quite a short dress, but broad with many folds. Varvara said with a smile:
"You aren't over-dressed!"
Grushina replied with a vulgar wink:
"It'll attract the boys!"
"But why so many folds?" asked Varvara.
"I can fill them with sweets for my devilkins," explained Grushina.
All of Grushina that was so boldly displayed was handsome—but what contradictions. On her skin were flea-bites, her manners were coarse and her talk was insufferably banal. Once more abused bodily beauty!