"What is it, Paul?"
"I want to introduce to you one of my friends, and to ask you to give him an invitation to your ball."
"Bring him to the ball and introduce him to me there. Did you go yesterday to the Princess's?"
"Certainly. It was delightful! We danced until five o'clock in the morning. Mademoiselle Eletzki was charming."
"My dear nephew, you are really not difficult to please. As to beauty, you should have seen her grandmother, the Princess Daria Petrovna. But she must be very old, the Princess Daria Petrovna!"
"How do you mean old?" cried Tomski thoughtlessly; "she died seven years ago."
The young lady who acted as companion raised her head and made a sign to the officer, who then remembered that it was an understood thing to conceal from the Princess the death of any of her contemporaries. He bit his lips. The Countess, however, was not in any way disturbed on hearing that her old friend was no longer in this world.
"Dead!" she said, "and I never knew it! We were maids of honour in the same year, and when we were presented, the Empress"—and the old Countess related for the hundredth time an anecdote of her young days. "Paul," she said, as she finished her story, "help me to get up. Lisabeta, where is my snuff-box?"
And, followed by the three maids, she went behind a great screen to finish her toilet. Tomski was now alone with the companion.
"Who is the gentleman you wish to introduce to madame?" asked Lisabeta.