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278
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
we drove past on our way to the hotel near the Place
de 1’Étoile, but she answered impatiently, " I do not
know. I know nothing about these places. I cannot
tell which is which."
The Tuileries, the Place de la Concorde, the Palais
de l’Industrie, awakened no recollections in her, nor
made any impression. Paris, great and gay, which
had always been her favorite city, the place she would
have chosen to live in had she had the choice, was to
her at this moment a dead mass of dull buildings.
She had not received a letter from him, and only one
from a friend, whose news was anything but
satisfactory—that was why Paris was dull.
We spent some feverish, strangely restless weeks in
the place where, the year before, Sönya had received
so much adulation and honorable distinction. But
now scientific Paris seemed to have forgotten her.
She had had her " quarter of an hour."
We looked up our friends, made new acquaintances,
and ran about from morning to night, but not as
tourists. Of the city and its sights I saw nothing—not
even the Eiffel Tower. We were only interested in
studying people and theaters, trying to get into the
whirlpool, and to find the necessary stimulus for our
intended literary work.
The circle of our acquaintance was varied, and on
some days curiously mixed. All nations and all types
were represented in our rooms. A Russo-Jewish family
and a French banker’s family lived in the palaces of
former aristocrats. Their footmen wore knee-breeches
and silk stockings, and the whole turnout was in a
high style of luxury. Among our friends, besides,
were Swedish and Russian scientists, some of the
latter being ladies; Polish emigrants and conspirators;
French literary men and women; and several Scandi-
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