Explore "Protection: A Christmas Story" by Valery Bryusov on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
This happened five-and-twenty years ago, and more: it was in the middle of the seventies. I had only just got my commission. Our regiment was stationed at a small provincial town in the government of X. We spent our time as officers usually do: we drank, played cards, and paid attentions to women.
Among the people living in the neighbourhood, one stood out above the rest, Mme. C---Elena Grigorievna. Strictly speaking, she did not belong to the society there, for until lately she had always lived at Petersburg. But being left a widow a year previously she had settled down to live on her country estate, about ten versts from the town. She was somewhat over thirty years of age, but in her eyes, almost unnaturally large, there was something childlike, which gave her an inexplicablc charm. All our officers werc attracted by her; but I fell in love witll her, as only twenty can fall in love.