DINNER AT ТПЕ GOVERNOR'S. 219
which, since the peace, have become the only recognised code in the fashionable world. Such is the dreary recollection which. I cannot banish in listening
to the agreeable conversation of M., and in
comparing it with that of liis contemporaries. Of conversation may be said, with even greater justice than of the style of books, that it is the individual himself. People arrange their writings, bit not their repartees, or if they attempt to arrange them, they, at least, lose more than they gain by it; for, in familiar talk, affectation is no longer a veil, it becomes a signal,
The party that met yesterday at the dinner of the
governor was a singular compound of contrary ele
ments : besides young M., of whom I have just
drawn the portrait, there was another Frenchman, a
Doctor К, who had sailed, I was told, in a govern
ment vessel on an expedition to the Pole, disem
barked, I know not why, in Lapland, and had travelled
straight from Archangel to Nijni, without even pass
ing through Petersburg; a useless and fatiguing
journey, which a man of the iron frame that I ob
served in this traveller could alone support. I am
assured that he is a learned naturalist: his counte
nance is remarkable ; there is something of immobility
and mystery about it which piques the imagination.
As for his conversation, I shall hope to hear it in
France; in Russia he says nothing. The Russians
are more skilful; they always say something, though,
indeed, the contrary often to what is expected from
them; but it is sufficient to prevent their silence being
remarked. There was also, at this dinner, a family of
young English fashionables, of the highest rank, and
L 2
220DINNER AT THE GOVERNOR'S.
whom I have been following, as though by track, ever since my arrival in Russia; encountering them every where, finding it impossible to avoid them, and yet never meeting an opportunity of making- direct acquaintance with them. All these people found a seat at the table of the governor, without reckoning some employes, and various other natives, who never opened their mouths except to eat. I need not add that general conversation was impossible in such a circle. In Russian society, the women never become natural except by aid of culture : their language is acquired, it is that of books; and to lose the pedantry which books instil, a long experience of the world is necessary. The wife of the governor has remained too provincial, too much herself, too Russian, too natural, iii short, to appear simple like the women of the court; besides, she has little facility in speaking French. Yesterday, in her drawing-room, all her attempts were limited to receiving her guests, with intentions of politeness the most praiseworthy, but she did nothing to put them at their ease, or to establish between them a facile intercourse. I was, therefore, very well satisfied, on rising from table, to
be able to .talk
Our conversation was drawing to a close, for all the
guests of the governor were preparing to leave, when
young Lord, who knows my countryman, ap
proached him, with a ceremonious air, and asked him
to present us to each other. This flattering advance
was made by him with the politeness of his country?
which, without being graceful, or even because it is
not graceful, is by no means devoid of a kind of
ENGLISH ODDITIES.221
nobleness allied to the reserve of sentiments and to coldness of manners.
' I have for a long time, my lord,' I said, ' desired an opportunity of becoming acquainted with you, and i thank you for having given it me. We are, I think, destined frequently to meet this year; I hope for the future to profit better by the chance than I have done hitherto.' ¦
' I am very sorry to leave you,' replied the Englishman, ' but I set out directly.'
' We shall meet again at Moscow ?'
?? No; I am going to Poland ; my carriage is at the door, and I shall not leave it until I reach Wilna.'
An inclination to laugh almost over-mastered me,
when I saw in the face of M. that he thought
with me, that after having done without each other for three months, at the court, at Peterhoff, at Moscow, in short, every where where we met without speaking, the young lord might have dispensed with uselessly imposing upon three persons the tiresomeness of a formal introduction, without any object either for himself or me. It appeared to us that, after having dined together, if his wish had been to talk with us for a quarter of an hour, nothing need have prevented his joining in our conversation. The scrupulous and formal Englishman left us stupified by his tardy, troublesome, and superfluous politeness ; while he himself appeared equally satisfied with having made acquaintance with me, and with having made no use of this
This
It occurred in London. The lady, who possesses a l 3
222ANECDOTE OF A POLISH LADY.
charming wit, related it to me herself. The graces of her conversation and the solid culture of her mind cause her to be much courted in the higher circles, notwithstanding the misfortunes of her country and her family. I say notwithstanding, for whatever may be said or thought, misfortune is little compassionated in society, even in the best; on the contrary, it stands greatly in the way of the individual's other recommendations. It does not, however, prevent the woman of whom I speak from being considered as one of the most distinguished and amiable of the day, both in London and Paris. Invited to a large, ceremonious dinner party, and being placed between the master of the house and a stranger, she soon grew weary, and had long to continue so; for, although the fashion of everlasting dinners is on the wane in England, they arc still longer there than in other lands. The lady, making the best of her misfortune, sought to vary the conversation, and, whenever the master of the house allowed her a moment's respite, she turned towards her right-hand neighbour; but she invariably encountered •a face of stone : and notwithstanding her easy manners as a woman of rank, and her vivacity as a woman of wit, so great an immobility disconcerted her. The dinner passed under these discouraging circumstances ; a gloomy silence followed : gloom is as necessary to English faces as uniform is to soldiers. Later in the evening, when the men again joined the ladies in the drawing-room, she who told me this story no sooner perceived her neighbour, the stony-visaged man of the dinner-table, than he, before venturing a word, hastened to find the owner of the house at the other end of the room, to
