he gave us! every one was crying—wherever I looked I saw tears . . . and the governor-general's horses were tawny, like tigers. And the flowers, the flowers that were brought! . . . Simply loads of flowers!' And how on that day a foreigner, a wealthy, tremendously wealthy person, had shot himself from love—and how Orlov too had been there. . . . And going up to Alexey Sergeitch, he had congratulated him and called him a lucky man . . . 'A lucky man you are, you silly fellow!' said he. And how in answer to these words Alexey Sergeitch had made a wonderful bow, and had swept the floor from left to right with the plumes of his hat, as if he would say: 'Your Excellency, there is a line now between you and my spouse, which you will not overstep!' And Orlov, Alexey Grigorievitch understood at once, and commended him. 'Oh! that was a man! such a man!' And how, 'One day, Alexis and I were at his house at a ball—I was married then—and he had the most marvellous diamond buttons! And I could not resist it, I admired them. "What marvellous diamonds you have. Count!" said I. And he, taking up a knife from the table, at once cut off a button and presented it to me and said: "In your eyes, my charmer, the diamonds are a hundred times brighter; stand before the looking-glass and compare them." And I stood so, and he stood beside me. "Well, who's right?" said he,
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