'Tomorrow dear Aunt Beloskunski-Belokonski is coming to dinner, a delightful old spinster, who lives in a villa above Valvey. Terriblement grande dame et tout ça. Elle aime taquiner Andryusha en disant qu'un simple cultivateur comme lui n'aurait pas dû épouser la fille d'une actrice et d'un marchand de tableaux. Would you care to join us - Jean?'

Jean replied: 'Alas, no, dear Daria Andrevna: Je dois "surveiller les kilos." Besides, I have a business dinner tomorrow.'

'At least' - (smiling) - 'you could call me Dasha.'

'I do it for Andrey,' explained Ada, 'actually the grand' dame in question is a vulgar old skunk.'

'Ada!' uttered Dasha with a look of gentle reproof. (3.8)

'And then, one day, Demon warned me that he would not come any more if he heard again poor Andrey's poor joke (Nu i balagur-zhe vï, Dementiy Labirintovich) or what Dorothy, l'impayable ("priceless for impudence and absurdity") Dorothy, thought of my camping out in the mountains with only Mayo, a cowhand, to protect me from lions.' (ibid.)

In Aldanov's Peshchera Mme Leoni looks like a real grande dame (at least, to Musya Kremenetsky):

"С виду, grande dame настоящая, -- подумала Муся. -- И с детьми она хорошо себя поставила, очень любит и держит в руках..." ("The Cave," Part One, chapter II)

In Aldanov's Klyuch Prince Gorenski tells Fomin that Tamara Matveena (Musya's mother) is impayable:

- Дa ведь спектaкль должен был состояться ещё в декaбре?

- Отложили из-зa болезни Тaмaры Мaтвеевны… Теперь онa, беднaя, совсем измотaлaсь с хлопотaми по устройству юбилея. Сегодня ещё мне говорит: "Все тaк сочувственно отнеслись…" Elle est impayable.

Князь покaзaл Фомину глaзaми нa подходившего сзaди Кременецкого.

- Мы о вaшем юбилее толковaли, не слушaйте, - скaзaл Горенский.

- Ох, и не говорите, смерть моя! - ответил шутливо, зaмaхaв рукaми, Семён Исидорович. - Вот тоже выдумaли дело: чествовaть meine Wenigkeit, кaк говорят ковaрные тевтоны. ("The Key," Part Two, chapter II)

"The perfidious Teutons" mentioned by Kremenetsky (the action in Klyuch takes place during the World War I) bring to mind Van's words to Cordula:

'Tell me something to distract me, though you distract me as it is, un petit topinambour as the Teuton said in the story. Tell me about your affairs of the heart.'

She was not a bright little girl. But she was a loquacious and really quite exciting little girl. He started to caress her under the table, but she gently removed his hand, whispering 'womenses,' as whimsically as another girl had done in some other dream. He cleared his throat loudly and ordered half-a-bottle of cognac, having the waiter open it in his presence as Demon advised. She talked on and on, and he lost the thread of her discourse, or rather it got enmeshed in the rapid landscape, which his gaze followed over her shoulder, with a sudden ravine recording what Jack said when his wife 'phoned, or a lone tree in a clover field impersonating abandoned John, or a romantic stream running down a cliff and reflecting her brief bright affair with Marquis Quizz Quisana. (1.42)

Quisisana, the best hotel in Capri, is mentioned in Aldanov's novel Bred ("Delirium," 1955):

Она видела в городке большую гостиницу «Квисисана». В путеводителе было сказано, что это самый лучший отель Капри, да это и без путеводителя было ясно само собой, по виду выходивших людей, по тому, что здесь толпились гиды и стояли ослики для туристов, — когда Наташа проходила мимо, к крыльцу на ослике подъехала говорившая по-немецки горделивая дама. (chapter VI)

Dorothy Vinelander (Ada's impayable sister-in-law) eventually marries a Mr Brod or Bred (3.8).

Alexey Sklyarenko