. I’ve come, you know, to have a look at the pretty girls⁠ ⁠… whom, of course, I could meet nowhere in such profusion as here. They all live beyond the river and I don’t drive out so far. There’s a wife of an officer⁠ ⁠… in the chasseurs I believe he is⁠ ⁠… who is distinctly pretty, distinctly, and⁠ ⁠… she knows it herself. I’ve talked to the sly puss; she is a sprightly one⁠ ⁠… and the girls too are fresh-looking; but that’s all, there’s nothing but freshness. Still, it’s a pleasure to look at them. There are some rosebuds, but their lips are thick. As a rule there’s an irregularity about female beauty in Russia, and⁠ ⁠… they are a little like buns.⁠ ⁠… vous me pardonnez, n’est-ce pas?