[MIMI'S MARRIAGE]
I
MIMOTCHKA—is engaged! Mimotchka[1] is once more engaged, and this time, it seems, engaged in earnest. She receives congratulations, pays visits to her relations, and accepts presents from them. Her aunts question her with curiosity and interest about the details of her trousseau; her uncles bring their best wishes, joking at Mimotchka and teasing her, while Mimotchka slightly blushes and casts down her innocent-looking eyes.
"And are you very much in love with your fiancé?" they ask Mimotchka.
[1] Mimotchka, or Mimi, is sometimes used as a diminutive name for Marie.
"As yet, I know my fiancé too little to be in love with him, but I ... respect him," she answers.
What a reply! Nobody had expected she would answer so cleverly. All the aunts think she has answered very cleverly, though up till now Mimotchka had never shown any more cleverness than would be required of so pretty a girl as she.