1805, and the speaker was the well-known AnnaPavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress MaryaFedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a manof high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive atherreception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, asshe said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word inSt. Petersburg, used only by the elite.All her invitations without exception, written in French,