पृष्ठ 899 / 1294

"Do you know, I gave her the most delicate instructions, so to

speak, for inviting that lady and her daughter, you understand of

whom I am speaking? It needed the utmost delicacy, the greatest

nicety, but she has managed things so that that fool, that

conceited baggage, that provincial nonentity, simply because she

is the widow of a major, and has come to try and get a pension

and to fray out her skirts in the government offices, because at

fifty she paints her face (everybody knows it)... a creature like

that did not think fit to come, and has not even answered the

invitation, which the most ordinary good manners required! I

can't understand why Pyotr Petrovitch has not come? But where's

Sonia? Where has she gone? Ah, there she is at last! what is it,

Sonia, where have you been? It's odd that even at your father's

funeral you should be so unpunctual. Rodion Romanovitch, make

room for her beside you. That's your place, Sonia... take what

you like.