They are dull, and yet the twinkle in their eyes indicates cunning." Before him, the next seat was occupied by two gentlemen.

They spoke in French, thinking no one would comprehend their conversation.

They were discussing the ascending star, about which one had a deeper knowledge than the subjects of Baboushka.
"She is the cause of the disgrace of the Grand-Chamberlain of a northern kingdom," said this well-informed man.

"He has been obliged to send in his grand cross of the Royal Order and his rank in the Holy Empire, after what was almost a revolution in the palace.

He is a man over sixty, who was in Russia on an important mission, when he met by chance this young girl, whose mother was married to a noble, although the elder sister of one of those beauties notorious for their depravity in Paris.
Perhaps, though, she secured her husband before her sister won this dubious celebrity.