She made him happy with a son; but the poor child did not live long.  It died in the spring; and in the summer, in accordance with the advice of the doctors, Lavretsky and his wife went the round of the foreign watering-places.  Distraction was absolutely necessary for her after such a misfortune; and, besides, her health demanded a warmer climate.  That summer and autumn they spent in Germany and Switzerland; and in the winter, as might be expected, they went to Paris.

In Paris Varvara Pavlovna bloomed like a rose; and there, just as quickly and as skilfully as she had done in St. Petersburg, she learnt how to build herself a snug little nest.  She procured a very pretty set of apartments in one of the quiet but fashionable streets, she made her husband such a dressing-gown as he had never worn before; she secured an elegant lady’s maid, an excellent cook, and an energetic footman; and she provided herself with an exquisite carriage, and a charming cabinet piano.  Before a week was over she could already cross a street, put on a shawl, open a parasol, and wear gloves, as well as the most pure-blooded of Parisian women.

She soon made acquaintances also.  At first only Russians used to come to her house; then Frenchmen began to show themselves—­amiable bachelors, of polished manners, exquisite in demeanor, and bearing high-sounding names.  They all talked a great deal and very fast, they bowed gracefully, their eyes twinkled pleasantly.  All of them possessed teeth which gleamed white between rosy lips; and how beautifully they smiled!  Each of them brought his friends; and before long La belle Madame de Lavretski became well known from the Chausee d’ Antin to the Rue de Lille.  At that time—­it was in 1836—­the race of feuilletonists and journalists, which now swarms everywhere, numerous as the ants one sees when a hole is made in an ant-hill, had not yet succeeded in multiplying in numbers.  Still, there used to appear in Varvara Pavlovna’s drawing-room a certain M. Jules, a gentleman who bore a very bad character, whose appearance was unprepossessing, and whose manner was at once insolent and cringing—­like that of all duellists and people who have been horsewhipped.  Varvara disliked this M. Jules very much; but she received him because he wrote in several newspapers, and used to be constantly mentioning her, calling her sometimes Madame de L ... tski, sometimes Madame de * * *, cette grande dame Russe si distinguee, qui demeure rue de P——­, and describing to the whole world, that is to say to some few hundreds of subscribers, who had nothing whatever to do with Madame de L ... tski, how loveable and charming was that lady, une vraie francaise par l’esprit,—­the French have no higher praise than this,—­what an extraordinary musician she was, and how wonderfully she waltzed. (Varvara Pavlovna did really waltz so as to allure all hearts to the skirt of her light, floating robe.) In fact, he spread her fame abroad throughout the world; and this we know, whatever people may say, is pleasant.