Page 791 - the-idiot

which proved, her friends said, that she was a woman of tact.
The Epanchins prided themselves upon the good opinion
people held of them.
One of the representatives of the middle-class present
today was a colonel of engineers, a very serious man and a
great friend of Prince S., who had introduced him to the Ep-
anchins. He was extremely silent in society, and displayed
on the forefinger of his right hand a large ring, probably be-
stowed upon him for services of some sort. There was also
a poet, German by name, but a Russian poet; very present-
able, and even handsome-the sort of man one could bring
into society with impunity. This gentleman belonged to a
German family of decidedly bourgeois origin, but he had
a knack of acquiring the patronage of ‘big-wigs,’ and of
retaining their favour. He had translated some great Ger-
man poem into Russian verse, and claimed to have been a
friend of a famous Russian poet, since dead. (It is strange
how great a multitude of literary people there are who have
had the advantages of friendship with some great man of
their own profession who is, unfortunately, dead.) The dig-
nitary’s wife had introduced this worthy to the Epanchins.
This lady posed as the patroness of literary people, and she
certainly had succeeded in obtaining pensions for a few of
them, thanks to her influence with those in authority on
such matters. She was a lady of weight in her own way. Her
age was about forty-five, so that she was a very young wife
for such an elderly husband as the dignitary. She had been a
beauty in her day and still loved, as many ladies of forty-five
do love, to dress a little too smartly. Her intellect was noth-

0 The Idiot