In both groups conversation wavered, as it always does, for the first few minutes, broken up by meetings, greetings, offers of tea, and as it were, feeling about for something to rest upon.

"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.