Look at me!"
"Oh, Lidia Petrovna!" said Sarudine, "you surely don't call that a
pretty speech!"
"I beg your pardon?" asked Lida drily, as if she had not heard, and
then, in a different tone, she again addressed Volochine.
"Do tell me something about life in Petersburg. Here, we don't live, we
only vegetate."
Sarudine saw that Volochine was smiling to himself, as if he did not
believe that the former had ever been on intimate terms with Lida.
"Ah! Ah! Ah! Very good!" he said to himself, as he bit his lip
viciously.
"Oh! our famous Petersburg life!" Volochine, who chattered with ease,
looked like a silly little monkey babbling of things that it did not
comprehend.
"Who knows?" he thought to himself, his gaze riveted on Lida's
beautiful form.
"I assure you on my word of honour that our life is extremely dull and
colourless. Until to-day I thought that life, generally, was always
dull, whether in the town or in the country."
"Not really!" exclaimed Lida, as she half closed her eyes.
"What makes life worth living is ... a beautiful woman! And the women
in big towns! If you could only see what they were like! Do you know, I
feel convinced that if the world is ever saved it will be by beauty.
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