About the book: year / "On the balcony a table was prepared for evening tea. The mistress of the house, Vassa Makarovna Barvinskaya, cast a last critical glance at the table and found that everything was in order. The samovar, in which the greenery of the garden was brightly reflected from the side, and the clear azure of the sky from above, glittered like gold. The oil turned yellow in the crystal oil dish. The glass of the glasses, the silver of the spoons, and the whiteness of the Dutch tablecloth were immaculate. Vassa Makarovna thought that it would be nice to put pretzels and some tasty cookies in the cracker bowl, instead of homemade white bread, which is already somewhat stale, but she realized that the guests, of course, would excuse it, because where can you get all this, living in seven miles from the city, and, moreover, on a farm. With this thought, she slowly walked down the steps of the balcony into the garden to look for the guests - her brother with his wife and young sister-in-law, a neighboring landowner, and an officer…»