The Czar's Cadets At Peterhof
January, 1978
Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841)At times it still beguiles my mind, Our Peterhof1 Infirmitory--Which more than one of us is sorry, I dare say, to have left behind.There roosted, one flight up, a little Old lady, wrinkled, whiskered, brittle, With one groom; she was all but blind.That's where my anecdote is set, But she's not in the story ... yet.It was her Polish waiting girl Who, bold-eyed, crisp of tongue and curl, Inflamed each gawky, grubby, muddled, By turns hung over and befuddled, Loudmouthe...
