"You are a fiend, after all, then. Well, then, come along, and let's see what kind of ball-dress my godmother has sent me."
This may be called a thorough capitulation.
The box was brought in and opened, the most exquisite of ball-dresses produced, and, with Zeneida's aid, duly tried on. In it Bethsaba showed herself to her husband.
"Shall I look lovely? Shall I turn many men's heads?"
"Every one of them!"
"Oh, take care, take care! You must not embrace me; you will crush my lace!"
This is the way in which a man is deprived of his wife in the very midst of his honeymoon.
CHAPTER XLII
THE FEAST OF MASINKA
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is, according to the Russian calendar, at the end of August, thus twelve days later than according to the astronomical calendar. By this we see that the Czar of Russia has power to command even the sun. As, according to the Russian calendar, every four hundredth year is short of three days, in the course of twenty thousand years it will be summer in the winter quarter, and winter in the summer quarter, in Russia. The Czar can even effect this.
However, now it is the beginning of autumn, the best time of all the year in St. Petersburg. The days are shorter and not so hot; the nights are moonlight; and, one-third of Russian women being named Mary, there is a festive tone in all houses; and at night, when fireworks begin, there are more stars to be seen on the earth than in the sky.