Fyodor Dostoevsky

“ Can she speak Russian? When this De Griers was in Moscow he soon learnt to make himself understood."
I explained to the old lady that Mlle. Blanche had never visited Russia.
"Bonjour, then," said Madame, with sudden brusquerie.
"Bonjour, madame," replied Mlle. Blanche with an elegant, ceremonious bow as, under cover of an unwonted modesty, she endeavoured to express, both in face and figure, her extreme surprise at such strange behaviour on the part of the Grandmother.
"How the woman sticks out her eyes at me! How she mows and minces!" ”

“ Astley looked pleased at receiving the invitation.
Next, the old lady scanned Polina, from head to foot with minute attention.
"I could almost have liked you, Prascovia," suddenly she remarked, "for you are a nice girl—the best of the lot. You have some character about you. I too have character. Turn round. Surely that is not false hair that you are wearing?"
"No, Grandmamma. It is my own."
"Well, well. I do not like the stupid fashions of today. You are very good looking. I should have fallen in love with you if I had been a man. Why do you not get married? ”

“ Yes, it was she—rich, and imposing, and seventy-five years of age—Antonida Vassilievna Tarassevitcha, landowner and grande dame of Moscow—the "La Baboulenka" who had caused so many telegrams to be sent off and received—who had been dying, yet not dying—who had, in her own person, descended upon us even as snow might fall from the clouds! Though unable to walk, she had arrived borne aloft in an armchair (her mode of conveyance for the last five years) , as brisk, aggressive, self-satisfied, bolt-upright, loudly imperious, and generally abusive as ever. ”