Vladimir Nabokov. El círculo : Клуб изучающих испанский языкVladimir Nabokov. El círculo
Vladimir Nabokov. THE CIRCLE
laughter, and a magnificent pink cake with a satiny glaze and sixteen candles, and the exclamations of children, and the barking of both dogs that had all but jumped onto the table—while here at this end the garlands of linden shade linked up people of the meanest rank: Ilya Ilyich, smiling in a sort of daze; an ethereal but ugly damsel whose shyness expressed itself in onion sweat; a decrepit French governess with nasty eyes who held in her lap under the table a tiny invisible creature that now and then emitted a tinkle; and so forth. Innokentiy's direct neigh-bor happened to be the estate steward's brother, a blockhead, a bore, and a stutterer; Innokentiy talked to him only because si