Bokharians, peasants, beds of greens,
Boulevards, belfries, milliners,
Huts, chemists, Cossacks, shopkeepers
And fashionable magazines,
Balconies, lion's heads on doors,
Jackdaws on every spire—in scores.(75)
[Note 75: The first line refers to the prevailing shape of the cast-iron handles which adorn the
XXXVII
The weary way still incomplete,
An hour passed by—another—till,
Near Khariton's in a side street
The coach before a house stood still.
At an old aunt's they had arrived
Who had for four long years survived
An invalid from lung complaint.
A Kalmuck gray, in caftan rent
And spectacles, his knitting staid
And the saloon threw open wide;
The princess from the sofa cried
And the newcomers welcome bade.
The two old ladies then embraced
And exclamations interlaced.
XXXVIII
'Princesse, mon ange!'—'Pachette!'—
'Aline!'
'Who would have thought it? As of yore!
Is it for long?'—'Ma chere cousine!'
'Sit down. How funny, to be sure!
'Tis a scene of romance, I vow!'
'Tania, my eldest child, you know'—
'Ah! come, Tattiana, come to me!
Is it a dream, and can it be?
Cousin, rememb'rest Grandison?'
'What! Grandison?'—'Yes, certainly!'
'Oh! I remember, where is he?'—
'Here, he resides with Simeon.
He called upon me Christmas Eve—
His son is married, just conceive!'
XXXIX
'And he—but of him presently—
To-morrow Tania we will show,
What say you? to the family—
Alas! abroad I cannot go.
See, I can hardly crawl about—
But you must both be quite tired out!
Let us go seek a little rest—
Ah! I'm so weak—my throbbing breast!
Oppressive now is happiness,
Not only sorrow—Ah! my dear,
