"She's exceptionally good as an actress; one can see she's studied Kaulbach," said a diplomatic attache in the group round the ambassador's wife.

" Did you notice how she fell down?..." "Oh, please, don't let us talk about Nilsson! No one can possibly say anything new about her," said a fat, red-faced, flaxen-headed lady, without eyebrows and chignon, wearing an old silk dress.

This was Princess Myakaya, noted for her simplicity and the roughness of her manners, and nicknamed _enfant terrible_.

Princess Myakaya, sitting in the middle between the two groups, and listening to both, took part in the conversation first of one and then of the other.

" Three people have used that very phrase about Kaulbach to me today already, just as though they had made a compact about it.