" It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna.

With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception.

Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days.

She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St.