‘No, no, what for?’ he interposed hurriedly, in a rush of generous and magnanimous feeling, ‘I am not an egoist.... Why should I restrict your freedom ... when I know that your heart——’
‘Well, don’t come near me, you will crush my dress,’ she said hastily.
Litvinov was disturbed.
‘But you will take the nosegay?’ he asked.
‘Of course; it is very pretty, and I love that scent. Merci—I shall keep it in memory——’
‘Of your first coming out,’ observed Litvinov, ‘your first triumph.’
Irina looked over her shoulder at herself in the glass, scarcely bending her figure.
‘And do I really look so nice? You are not partial?’
Litvinov overflowed in enthusiastic praises. Irina was already not listening to him, and holding the flowers up to her face, she was again looking away into the distance with her strange, as it were, overshadowed, dilated eyes, and the ends of her delicate ribbons stirred by a faint current of air rose slightly behind her shoulders like wings.
The prince made his appearance, his hair well becurled, in a white tie, and a shabby black evening coat, with the medal of nobility on a Vladimir ribbon in his buttonhole. After him came the princess in a china silk dress of antique cut, and with the anxious severity under which mothers try to conceal their agitation, set her daughter to rights behind, that is to say, quite needlessly shook out the folds of her gown. An antiquated hired coach with seats for four, drawn by two shaggy hacks, crawled up to the steps, its wheels grating over the frozen mounds of unswept snow, and a decrepit groom in a most unlikely-looking livery came running out of the passage, and with a sort of desperate courage announced that the carriage was ready.... After giving a blessing for the night to the children left at home, and enfolding themselves in their fur wraps, the prince and princess went out to the steps; Irina in a little cloak, too thin and too short—how she hated the little cloak at that moment!—followed them in silence. Litvinov escorted them outside, hoping for a last look from Irina, but she took her seat in the carriage without turning her head.