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rather striking gestures, but no one listens to them or laughs at them with the possible exception of urchins in striped linen aprons, with empty flagons or mended shoes in their hands, running like streaks of lightning along the Nevski Prospect. During this time, whatever you may have on, even if you wear a peaked cap instead of a hat, even if your collars stick out too far beyond your cravat–no one will notice.
    At noon tutors of all nations invade the Nevski Prospect with their charges in lawn collars, English Joneses and French Coqs go hand in hand with the nurslings entrusted to their parental vigilance and explain to them with fitting gravity that the signboards above the shops are put there so that one can tell by means of them what the shops themselves contain. Governesses, pale misses and rosy Slavs walk in state behind their light, agile little girls, bidding them lift their shoulders a trifle and hold themselves straighter; in short, at this time the Nevski Prospect is a pedagogic Nevski Prospect.
    But the nearer it is to two o’clock, the more rare become the governesses, the pedagogues and children: finally, they are quite outnumbered by their delicately-nurtured parents, who go arm-in-arm with their brightly-colored variegated lady-friends with delicate nerves. Gradually they are joined by all those who have completed their rather important household affairs, who have just spoken with their doctor about the weather and a small pimple which has happened on the nose, have informed themselves about the health of their horses and their children, have shown great genius, in fact, reading a theatre or concert announcement and an important article in the paper about the latest arrivals and departures, and, finally, have partaken of a cup of coffee and of tea; they, in turn, are joined by those to whom an enviable fate has assigned the blessed calling of clerks with special commissions; and these are joined by persons serving in the Foreign Office and distinguished by the nobility of their occupations and habits. Heavens, what wonderful employments and offices there are! How they uplift and rejoice the heart! But alas! I am not an official and am deprived of the pleasure of observing the delicacy of my superiors’ attitude towards me. Everything you encounter in the Nevski Prospect is full of propriety: the gentlemen in long frock-coats with their hands in their pockets, the ladies in rose, white and pale blue satin redingotes, and elegant hats. Here you meet with unique side-whiskers, tucked with unusual and astounding taste beneath the cravat, velvet whiskers, satin whiskers, black as sable or coal, but alas! belonging solely to the Foreign Office. Providence has refused black side-whiskers to men serving in the other departments, they are compelled to their extreme displeasure to wear red ones. Here you will find marvellous moustaches which neither pen nor brush could depict; moustaches to which the best part of a lifetime has been devoted, the objects of long vigils by day and night; moustaches upon which the most ravishing perfumes and aromas have been poured and which have been anointed with the most precious and rarest sorts of pomades; moustaches which are wrapped in fine vellum paper for the night; moustaches upon which their possessor’s tenderest attachment breathes and which are the envy of passers-by. A thousand varieties of ladies’ hats, gowns, kerchiefs, bright and wispy, which sometimes retain their owners’ partiality for two whole days at a time, are bound to dazzle anyone in the Nevski Prospect. It looks as if a whole sea of butterflies has suddenly risen from the flow-erstalks and is waving in a dazzling cloud above the black beetles of the male sex. Here you will meet with waists such as you have never even dreamed of: fine narrow waists, no wider than the neck of a bottle, on meeting which you will step aside respectfully to avoid pushing against them rudely with a careless