She was always
the most distinguished looking at the annual ball. Her gown for the
occasion, ordered from Moscow, was always chosen with the greatest
regard for her charms and defects, and it was always exquisitely
beautiful. A new fashion could not gain admittance to the other ladies
of the regiment except by way of the captain's wife. Thanks to her
good taste in dressing, the stately blonde was queen at all the balls
and in all the salons of Chmyrsk. Another advantage of hers was that
although she was nearly forty she still looked fresh and youthful, so
that the young officers were constantly hovering about her and paying
her homage.
November was a very lively month in the regiment's calendar. It was on
the tenth of November that the annual ball took place. The ladies, of
course, spent their best efforts in preparation for this event.
Needless to say that in these arduous activities, Abramka Stiftik, the
ladies' tailor, played a prominent role. He was the one man in Chmyrsk
who had any understanding at all for the subtle art of the feminine
toilet. Preparations had begun in his shop in August already. Within
the last weeks his modest parlour--furnished with six shabby chairs
placed about a round table, and a fly-specked mirror on the wall--the
atmosphere heavy with a smell of onions and herring, had been filled
from early morning to the evening hours with the most charming and
elegant of the fairer sex.
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