"I think that it is superfluous to say that I was very vain.

If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living.

So for that Sunday I had busied myself in tastefully arranging things for the dinner and the musical soiree.

I had purchased myself numerous things for the dinner, and had chosen the guests.

Toward six o'clock they arrived, and after them Troukhatchevsky, in his dress-coat, with diamond shirt-studs, in bad taste.