His face was one stamped with the quality of obliviality; to see him once was to insure forgetting him at least twice. But at the “Geegee” parties he was made tidy, which he usually was not, and put in prominent places.

Nowadays—O irony of fate!—Moscow is enthusiastic over the Russian “Empire,” the “décadent style,” and Somov, as she was, yesterday, over Vasnetzov, Old-Russian palaces, cupboards, fairy-tales, and “bylinas” (old hero ballads).

The Railroad Trainman, Volume 17

Although we lived in the city, we didn't have tap water.