“This name she had received in a legitimate manner, for, indeed, she spared nothing to make herself amiable to the nth degree. Although, of course, through the amiability there would dart-oh! a sudden flash of the female character! And although sometimes out of every pleasant word of hers there would stick!-oh! such a pin. And God protect us from what was seething in her heart against any woman who somehow and in some way insinuated herself into the front ranks! But all that was cloaked in the most refined manners that could possibly be found in a provincial capital. Every movement she made was in good taste, she even liked poetry, she even sometimes knew how to hold her head in a dreamy manner, and all agreed that she was indeed a Lady Pleasant in All Respects.”
Nikolay Gogol, “Dead Souls”, 1842.
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