Queen of Spades means secret ill will.

The latest divination book.

I

And on rainy days
They were going
Often;
Bent - God forgive them! -
From fifty
One hundred
And they won
And unsubscribed
Chalk.
So, on rainy days,
They were engaged
Deed.

Once they played cards with the horse guard Narumov. The long winter night passed unnoticed; sat down to supper at five o'clock in the morning. Those who were the winners ate with great relish; the rest, distracted, sat in front of their instruments. But the champagne appeared, the conversation quickened, and everyone took part in it.

- What did you do, Surin? the owner asked.

Lost, as usual. - I must admit that I am unhappy: I play mirandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!

"And you've never been tempted?" never put on rue?.. Your tenacity is amazing to me.

- And what is Hermann! - said one of the guests, pointing to a young engineer, - from his birth he did not take cards in his hands, from his birth he did not bend a single password, but he sits with us until five o'clock and looks at our game!

“The game occupies me greatly,” Hermann said, “but I am not in a position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of gaining the superfluous.

“Hermann is a German: he is prudent, that’s all!” Tomsky remarked. - And if anyone is incomprehensible to me, it is my grandmother Countess Anna Fedotovna.

- How? What? the guests shouted.

“I can’t comprehend,” continued Tomsky, “how my grandmother doesn’t ponte!”

“Well, why is it surprising,” said Narumov, “that an eighty-year old woman does not ponte?”

"So you don't know anything about her?"

- No! right, nothing!

- Oh, so listen:

You need to know that my grandmother, sixty years ago, went to Paris and was there in great fashion. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite; Richelieu dragged after her, and the grandmother assures that he almost shot himself from her cruelty.

At that time, ladies played pharaoh. Once at court, she lost something very much on the word of the Duke of Orleans. Arriving home, the grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying the fizhma, announced to her grandfather about her loss and ordered him to pay.

The late grandfather, as far as I remember, was the family of my grandmother's butler. He was afraid of her like fire; however, when he heard about such a terrible loss, he lost his temper, brought the bills, proved to her that in half a year they had spent half a million, that they had neither a village near Moscow nor a Saratov village near Paris, and completely refused to pay. Grandmother gave him a slap in the face and went to bed alone, as a token of her disfavor.

The next day, she ordered her husband to be called, hoping that domestic punishment had an effect on him, but found him unshakable. For the first time in her life she went with him to arguments and explanations; I thought to reassure him, condescendingly arguing that there are many debts and that there is a difference between a prince and a coachman. - Where! grandfather rebelled. No, and only! Grandma didn't know what to do.

She was briefly acquainted with a very remarkable person. You have heard of the Comte Saint-Germain, of whom so many wonderful stories are told. You know that he pretended to be the Wandering Jew, the inventor of the life elixir and the philosopher's stone, and so on. They laughed at him as a charlatan, and Casanova in her Notes says that he was a spy; however, Saint-Germain, in spite of his mystery, had a very respectable appearance and was a very amiable person in society. Grandmother still loves him without memory and gets angry if they talk about him with disrespect. Grandmother knew that Saint Germain could have a lot of money. She decided to run to him. I wrote him a note and asked him to come to her immediately.

The old eccentric appeared at once and found him in terrible grief. She described to him in the darkest colors her husband's barbarity, and finally said that she placed all her hope in his friendship and courtesy.

Saint Germain considered.

“I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me off, and I would not want to introduce you to new troubles. There is another remedy: you can recoup." “But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I tell you that we have no money at all.” - "Money is not needed here," Saint-Germain objected: "if you please, listen to me." Then he revealed to her a secret, for which any of us would give dearly ...

Young players doubled the focus. Tomsky lit his pipe, took a puff, and went on.

That same evening my grandmother came to Versailles, au jeu de la Reine. Duke of Orleans Metal; grandmother slightly apologized for not bringing her debt, wove a little story to justify it and began to play against him. She chose three cards, put them one after the other: all three won her a sonic, and her grandmother won back completely.

- Chance! one of the guests said.

- Fairy tale! Hermann noted.

“Maybe powder cards?” - picked up the third.

"I don't think so," replied Tomsky importantly.

- How! - said Narumov, - do you have a grandmother who guesses three cards in a row, and you still have not adopted her cabalism from her?

- Yes, the devil with two! - Tomsky answered, - she had four sons, including my father: all four are desperate players, and she did not reveal her secret to anyone; although it would not be bad for them and even for me. But this is what my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich, told me, and of which he assured me with honor. The late Chaplitsky, the same one who died in poverty, having squandered millions, once in his youth lost - Zorich remembers - about three hundred thousand. He was in despair. Grandmother, who was always strict with the pranks of young people, somehow took pity on Chaplitsky. She gave him three cards, so that he put them one after another, and took from him his word of honor never to play again. Chaplitsky appeared to his winner: they sat down to play. Chaplitsky bet fifty thousand on the first card and won the sonic; bent passwords, passwords-ne, - recouped and still won ...

The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence.
The latest divination book.

And on rainy days
They were going
Often;
Bent - God forgive them! --
From fifty
One hundred
And they won
And unsubscribed
Chalk.
So, on rainy days,
They were engaged
Deed.

Once they played cards with the horse guard Narumov. The long winter night passed unnoticed; sat down to supper at five o'clock in the morning. Those who were the winners ate with great appetite, the rest sat distractedly in front of their empty utensils. But the champagne appeared, the conversation quickened, and everyone took part in it.
- What did you do, Surin? asked the owner.
Lost, as usual. I must admit that I am unhappy: I play mirandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!
"And you've never been tempted?" never put on the root? .. Your hardness is amazing to me.
What is Hermann? - said one of the guests, pointing to a young engineer, - he never took cards in his hands, he never turned down a single password, but he sits with us until five o'clock and watches our game!
- The game interests me greatly, - said Hermann, - but I am not able to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of gaining the superfluous.
"Hermann is a German: he's prudent, that's all!" Tomsky remarked. - And if anyone is incomprehensible to me, it's my grandmother Countess Anna Fedotovna.
-- How? What? shouted the guests.
“I can’t comprehend,” continued Tomsky, “how my grandmother doesn’t ponte!”
- Why is it surprising, - said Narumov, - that an eighty-year old woman does not ponte?
"So you don't know anything about her?"
-- No! right, nothing!
- Oh, so listen:
You need to know that my grandmother, sixty years ago, went to Paris and was there in great fashion. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite; 1) Richelieu dragged after her, and grandmother assures that he nearly shot himself because of her cruelty.
At that time, ladies played pharaoh. Once at court, she lost something very much on the word of the Duke of Orleans. Arriving home, the grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying the fizhma, announced to her grandfather about her loss and ordered him to pay.
The late grandfather, as far as I remember, was the family of my grandmother's butler. He was afraid of her like fire; however, hearing about such a terrible loss, he lost his temper, brought the bills, proved to her that in half a year they had spent half a million, that they had neither a village near Moscow nor a Saratov village near Paris, and completely refused to pay. Grandmother gave him a slap in the face and went to bed alone, as a token of her disfavor.
The next day, she ordered her husband to be called, hoping that domestic punishment had an effect on him, but found him unshakable. For the first time in her life she went with him to arguments and explanations; I thought to reassure him, condescendingly arguing that there are many debts and that there is a difference between a prince and a coachman.

The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence.

The latest divination book.

And on rainy days

They were going

Bent - God forgive them! -

From fifty

And they won

And unsubscribed

So, on rainy days,

They were engaged

Once they played cards with the horse guard Narumov. The long winter night passed unnoticed; sat down to supper at five o'clock in the morning. Those who were the winners ate with great relish; the rest, distracted, sat in front of their instruments. But the champagne appeared, the conversation quickened, and everyone took part in it.

- What did you do, Surin? the owner asked.

Lost, as usual. - I must admit that I am unhappy: I play mirandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!

"And you've never been tempted?" never put on the root? .. Your hardness is amazing to me.

- And what is Hermann! - said one of the guests, pointing to a young engineer, - from his birth he did not take cards in his hands, from his birth he did not bend a single password, but he sits with us until five o'clock and looks at our game!

“The game occupies me greatly,” Hermann said, “but I am not in a position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of gaining the superfluous.

“Hermann is a German: he is prudent, that’s all!” Tomsky remarked. - And if anyone is incomprehensible to me, it is my grandmother Countess Anna Fedotovna.

- How? What? the guests shouted.

“I can’t comprehend,” continued Tomsky, “how my grandmother doesn’t ponte!”

“Well, why is it surprising,” said Narumov, “that an eighty-year old woman does not ponte?”

"So you don't know anything about her?"

- No! right, nothing!

- Oh, so listen:

You need to know that my grandmother, sixty years ago, went to Paris and was there in great fashion. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite; Richelieu dragged after her, and the grandmother assures that he almost shot himself from her cruelty.

At that time, ladies played pharaoh. Once at court, she lost something very much on the word of the Duke of Orleans. Arriving home, the grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying the fizhma, announced to her grandfather about her loss and ordered him to pay.

The late grandfather, as far as I remember, was the family of my grandmother's butler. He was afraid of her like fire; however, when he heard about such a terrible loss, he lost his temper, brought the bills, proved to her that in half a year they had spent half a million, that they had neither a village near Moscow nor a Saratov village near Paris, and completely refused to pay. Grandmother gave him a slap in the face and went to bed alone, as a token of her disfavor.

The next day, she ordered her husband to be called, hoping that domestic punishment had an effect on him, but found him unshakable. For the first time in her life she went with him to arguments and explanations; I thought to reassure him, condescendingly arguing that there are many debts and that there is a difference between a prince and a coachman. - Where! grandfather rebelled. No, and only! Grandma didn't know what to do.

She was briefly acquainted with a very remarkable person. You have heard of the Comte Saint-Germain, of whom so many wonderful stories are told. You know that he pretended to be the Wandering Jew, the inventor of the life elixir and the philosopher's stone, and so on. They laughed at him as a charlatan, and Casanova in her Notes says that he was a spy; however, Saint-Germain, in spite of his mystery, had a very respectable appearance and was a very amiable person in society. Grandmother still loves him without memory and gets angry if they talk about him with disrespect. Grandmother knew that Saint Germain could have a lot of money. She decided to run to him. I wrote him a note and asked him to come to her immediately.

The old eccentric appeared at once and found him in terrible grief. She described to him in the darkest colors her husband's barbarity, and finally said that she placed all her hope in his friendship and courtesy.

Saint Germain considered.

“I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me off, and I would not want to introduce you to new troubles. There is another remedy: you can recoup." “But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I tell you that we have no money at all.” - "Money is not needed here," Saint-Germain objected: "if you please, listen to me." Then he revealed to her a secret, for which any of us would give dearly ...

Young players doubled the focus. Tomsky lit his pipe, took a puff, and went on.

That same evening my grandmother came to Versailles, au jeu de la Reine. Duke of Orleans Metal; grandmother slightly apologized for not bringing her debt, wove a little story to justify it and began to play against him. She chose three cards, put them one after the other: all three won her a sonic, and her grandmother won back completely.

- Chance! one of the guests said.

- Fairy tale! Hermann noted.

“Maybe powder cards?” - picked up the third.

"I don't think so," replied Tomsky importantly.

- How! - said Narumov, - do you have a grandmother who guesses three cards in a row, and you still have not adopted her cabalism from her?

- Yes, the devil with two! - Tomsky answered, - she had four sons, including my father: all four are desperate players, and she did not reveal her secret to anyone; although it would not be bad for them and even for me. But this is what my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich, told me, and of which he assured me with honor. The late Chaplitsky, the same one who died in poverty, having squandered millions, once in his youth lost - Zorich remembers - about three hundred thousand. He was in despair. Grandmother, who was always strict with the pranks of young people, somehow took pity on Chaplitsky. She gave him three cards, so that he put them one after another, and took from him his word of honor never to play again. Chaplitsky appeared to his winner: they sat down to play. Chaplitsky bet fifty thousand on the first card and won the sonic; bent passwords, passwords-ne, - recouped and still won ...

“But it’s time for bed: it’s already a quarter to six.”

In fact, it was already dawn: the young people finished their glasses and parted.

The story "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was written in 1833. In 1834 the work was first published in the second issue of the Library for Reading. You can read the summary of The Queen of Spades chapter by chapter to prepare for a lesson in literature or to familiarize yourself with the work directly on our website.

The Queen of Spades by Pushkin was written in the tradition of realism. The idea and plot of the work were suggested to the writer by the young Prince Golitsyn, who somehow managed to win back by betting, on the advice of his grandmother N.P. Golitsina, during the game on three cards. Golitsina at one time, Saint-Germain himself suggested these cards.

Main characters

Hermann- a military engineer, the son of a Russified German, who inherited a small capital, was "secret and ambitious."

Lizaveta Ivanovna- a young lady, a poor pupil of the countess ***.

Countess ***- an eighty-year-old woman, Tomsky's grandmother, who knows the "secret of three winning cards", in the story is the personification of fate.

Other characters

Paul Tomsky- the grandson of the old countess ***, a friend of Hermann.

Chekalinsky- a man of sixty years, a famous Moscow player.

Narumov- a horse guard, a friend of Tomsky and Herman.

Chapter 1

"Once they played cards with the horse guard Narumov". While making small talk after the game, the men are surprised by one of those present - Hermann, who watched the game of others all evening, but did not play himself. The man replied that his game was very busy, but he was not able to "sacrifice the necessary in the hope of acquiring the superfluous."

One of the guests, Tomsky, noticed that Hermann is German, and therefore prudent and his attitude to the game is easily explained. What really surprised Paul was why his grandmother Anna Fedotovna did not play.

Sixty years ago, while in Paris, she lost a very large sum at court to the Duke of Orleans. The husband categorically refused to pay the debt of Anna Fedotovna, so she decided to turn to the rich Saint-Germain. The “old eccentric”, instead of lending money, revealed to the woman the secret of three cards that certainly helped to win if you bet on them in a row. On the same evening, the woman fully recouped, but after this incident, the countess did not reveal the secret to anyone. The guests reacted with disbelief to this story.

Chapter 2

Countess ***, Tomsky's grandmother, "was capricious, like a woman spoiled by the world, stingy and immersed in cold selfishness, like all old people who have fallen out of love in their age and are alien to the present." Constantly the victim of the reproaches and whims of the old woman was her pupil, the young lady Lizaveta - "an unfortunate creature." The girl accompanied the old woman everywhere, at the balls she “sat in the corner, like an ugly and necessary decoration of the ballroom”, “she played the most miserable role in the world. Everyone knew her and no one noticed", so the young lady patiently waited for her "deliverer".

A few days after the evening, a young engineer appeared at Narumov's window near Lizaveta, whom the girl noticed sitting at the window at the embroidery frame. “Since that time, not a day has passed that a young man, at a certain hour, did not appear under the windows of their house.” A week later, Lizaveta smiled at him for the first time.

This secret admirer was Hermann. Tomsky's story about the cards "had a strong effect on his imagination", so Hermann decided that he must definitely find out the secret of the countess. One day, while walking around St. Petersburg, a man accidentally comes to her house. After that, Hermann had a dream about how "he put card after card, bent corners decisively, won incessantly, and raked in gold, and put banknotes in his pocket." In the morning, the man again comes to the countess's house and sees Lizaveta in the window - "this minute decided his fate."

Chapter 3

Lizaveta receives a letter from a secret admirer in which he confesses his love for her. The young lady writes an answer and returns Hermann's message, throwing him a letter into the street through the window. But this did not stop Hermann - he began to send letters to the girl every day, asking for a date. Finally, Lizaveta relented, throwing him a message through the window, in which she explained how to quietly come to her room at night, while the countess was at the ball.

Having entered the countess's house at night, Hermann hid in the study leading to the countess's room. When the old woman was left alone, the man went out to her. Asking the countess not to scream, he explained that he had come to learn the secret of the three cards. Seeing that the old woman did not want to share a secret with him, the man took out a pistol (as it turns out later, unloaded). Frightened by the sight of the weapon, the Countess dies.

Chapter 4

Lizaveta, sitting at that time in her room waiting for Hermann, recalls the words of Tomsky, with which he described his friend (Hermann) with “the profile of Napoleon and the soul of Mephistopheles” at the ball: “this man has at least three evil deeds in his soul.”

Here Herman himself comes to her and tells that he was with the countess and is guilty of her death. The girl understands that the man was actually looking for a meeting with her for the sake of enrichment, and she, in fact, is the killer's assistant. Lizaveta is struck by the outward resemblance of a man to Napoleon. In the morning, the man secretly leaves the house.

Chapter 5

Three days later, Hermann went to the monastery, where the countess was buried. When he approached the coffin and looked at the deceased, it seemed to him that "the dead woman looked at him mockingly, screwing up one eye." Stepping back, Hermann fainted.

At night, the man woke up at a quarter to three and heard someone first knock on his window, and then entered the room. It was a woman in a white dress - the late countess. She said that she came to him not of her own free will, but to fulfill his request. The Countess revealed the secret of three cards - "threes, sevens and an ace", however, she made a reservation that the man would win only on the condition that he would not bet "more than one card per day", after that he would not play all his life and would marry Lizaveta.

Chapter 6

These three cards did not leave Hermann's head. Just at that time he arrived in Petersburg famous player Chekalinsky. Hermann decides to play with Chekalinsky and for the first time, betting 47 thousand on the top three, he wins. Having received the prize, he immediately went home.

The next day, Hermann bet all his money on a seven. Having won 94 thousand, the man “with composure and left at the same moment.” On the third day, Chekalinsky dealt the Queen of Spades and the Ace. Hermann, exclaiming that his ace had beaten the queen, suddenly took a closer look and saw that he had actually drawn the queen: “At that moment it seemed to him that the queen of spades narrowed her eyes and grinned. Unusual resemblance struck him ... - The old woman! he screamed in horror.

Conclusion

After the incident, Hermann went crazy and ended up in the Obukhov hospital. Lizaveta married the son of the countess' former steward.

Conclusion

In the story "The Queen of Spades" Pushkin for the first time in Russian literature touched upon the theme of a crime, an atrocity against a person. The author showed that evil always breeds evil, leading to alienation from society and gradually killing the person in the criminal.

A brief retelling of The Queen of Spades allows you to quickly get acquainted with the content of the story, as well as refresh the main events in your memory, however, for a better understanding of the work, we recommend reading the story in full.

Story test

After reading the summary of Pushkin's work, be sure to take the test:

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.7. Total ratings received: 2840.

And on rainy days

They were going

Bent - God forgive them! -

From fifty

And they won

And unsubscribed

So, on rainy days,

They were engaged

Once they played cards with the horse guard Narumov. The long winter night passed unnoticed; sat down to supper at five o'clock in the morning. Those who were the winners ate with great relish; the rest, distracted, sat in front of their instruments. But the champagne appeared, the conversation quickened, and everyone took part in it.

- What did you do, Surin? the owner asked.

Lost, as usual. - I must admit that I am unhappy: I play mirandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!

"And you've never been tempted?" never put on rue?.. Your tenacity is amazing to me.

- And what is Hermann! - said one of the guests, pointing to a young engineer, - from his birth he did not take cards in his hands, from his birth he did not bend a single password, but he sits with us until five o'clock and looks at our game!

“The game occupies me greatly,” Hermann said, “but I am not in a position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of gaining the superfluous.

“Hermann is a German: he is prudent, that’s all!” Tomsky remarked. - And if anyone is incomprehensible to me, it is my grandmother Countess Anna Fedotovna.

- How? What? the guests shouted.

“I can’t comprehend,” continued Tomsky, “how my grandmother doesn’t ponte!”

“Well, why is it surprising,” said Narumov, “that an eighty-year old woman does not ponte?”

"So you don't know anything about her?"

- No! right, nothing!

- Oh, so listen:

You need to know that my grandmother, sixty years ago, went to Paris and was there in great fashion. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite; Richelieu dragged after her, and the grandmother assures that he almost shot himself from her cruelty.

At that time, ladies played pharaoh. Once at court, she lost something very much on the word of the Duke of Orleans. Arriving home, the grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying the fizhma, announced to her grandfather about her loss and ordered him to pay.

The late grandfather, as far as I remember, was the family of my grandmother's butler. He was afraid of her like fire; however, when he heard about such a terrible loss, he lost his temper, brought the bills, proved to her that in half a year they had spent half a million, that they had neither a village near Moscow nor a Saratov village near Paris, and completely refused to pay. Grandmother gave him a slap in the face and went to bed alone, as a token of her disfavor.

The next day, she ordered her husband to be called, hoping that domestic punishment had an effect on him, but found him unshakable. For the first time in her life she went with him to arguments and explanations; I thought to reassure him, condescendingly arguing that there are many debts and that there is a difference between a prince and a coachman. - Where! grandfather rebelled. No, and only! Grandma didn't know what to do.

She was briefly acquainted with a very remarkable person. You have heard of the Comte Saint-Germain, of whom so many wonderful stories are told. You know that he pretended to be the Wandering Jew, the inventor of the life elixir and the philosopher's stone, and so on. They laughed at him as a charlatan, and Casanova in her Notes says that he was a spy; however, Saint-Germain, in spite of his mystery, had a very respectable appearance and was a very amiable person in society. Grandmother still loves him without memory and gets angry if they talk about him with disrespect. Grandmother knew that Saint Germain could have a lot of money. She decided to run to him. I wrote him a note and asked him to come to her immediately.

The old eccentric appeared at once and found him in terrible grief. She described to him in the darkest colors her husband's barbarity, and finally said that she placed all her hope in his friendship and courtesy.

Saint Germain considered.

“I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me off, and I would not want to introduce you to new troubles. There is another remedy: you can recoup." “But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I tell you that we have no money at all.” - "Money is not needed here," Saint-Germain objected: "if you please, listen to me." Then he revealed to her a secret, for which any of us would give dearly ...

Young players doubled the focus. Tomsky lit his pipe, took a puff, and went on.

That same evening my grandmother came to Versailles, au jeu de la Reine. Duke of Orleans Metal; grandmother slightly apologized for not bringing her debt, wove a little story to justify it and began to play against him. She chose three cards, put them one after the other: all three won her a sonic, and her grandmother won back completely.

- Chance! one of the guests said.

- Fairy tale! Hermann noted.

“Maybe powder cards?” - picked up the third.

"I don't think so," replied Tomsky importantly.

- How! - said Narumov, - do you have a grandmother who guesses three cards in a row, and you still have not adopted her cabalism from her?

- Yes, the devil with two! - Tomsky answered, - she had four sons, including my father: all four are desperate players, and she did not reveal her secret to anyone; although it would not be bad for them and even for me. But this is what my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich, told me, and of which he assured me with honor. The late Chaplitsky, the same one who died in poverty, having squandered millions, once in his youth lost - Zorich remembers - about three hundred thousand. He was in despair. Grandmother, who was always strict with the pranks of young people, somehow took pity on Chaplitsky. She gave him three cards, so that he put them one after another, and took from him his word of honor never to play again. Chaplitsky appeared to his winner: they sat down to play. Chaplitsky bet fifty thousand on the first card and won the sonic; bent passwords, passwords-ne, - recouped and still won ...

“But it’s time for bed: it’s already a quarter to six.”

In fact, it was already dawn: the young people finished their glasses and parted.

II parait que monsieur est decision pourles suivantes.

- Que voulez-vus, madame? Elles sont plus freiches.

Secular conversation.

The old countess *** was sitting in her dressing-room in front of a mirror. Three girls surrounded her. One held a jar of rouge, another a box of hairpins, a third a tall cap with fiery ribbons. The Countess had not the slightest pretense of beauty, long faded, but retained all the habits of her youth, strictly followed the fashions of the seventies, and dressed as long, as diligently, as she had sixty years ago. A young lady, her pupil, was sitting at the window at the embroidery frame.

- Hello, grand "maman," the young officer said, entering. "Bon jour, mademoiselle Lise. Grand" maman, I'm asking you.

What is it, Paul?

- Allow me to introduce one of my friends and bring him to you on Friday for a ball.

“Bring him straight to the ball for me, and then introduce him to me.” Were you yesterday at ***?

- How! it was very fun; danced until five o'clock. How good was Yeletskaya!