Read "The Picture" by Aleksandr Kuprin online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
He was having supper one evening with his officer friends in one of the most fashionable restaurants. They had had very much to drink, champagne above all. Suddenly the talk turned on horses -- it's well known to be an eternal subject of conversation with officers -- as to who owned the most spirited team in Petersburg. One Cossack -- I don't remember his name, I only know that he was one of the reigning princes in the Caucasus -- said that at that time the most spirited horses were a pair of black stallions belonging to -- -- -, and he named a lady in an extremely high position.
"They are not horses," said he, "but wild things. It's only Ilya who can manage them, and they won't allow themselves to be outdistanced."