Read "The Picture" by Aleksandr Kuprin online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
After his famous race the prince went off to Moscow, and there continued to behave as he had done in Petersburg, only on a larger scale. At one time the whole town talked of nothing but his caprices. And it was there that something happened to him which caused all the folks at Pneestcheva to mock. A woman came into his life.
But I must tell you what sort of a woman she was. A queen of women! There are none like her in these days. Of a most marvellous beauty. She had formerly been an actress, then she had married a merchant millionaire, and when he died -- she didn't want to marry anyone else -- she said that she preferred to be free.