MARTHA
A rough version by Mykolas Letas Palmaitis
My Grandfather together with his Dad visits his sister Maria and her husband Count Eugen Visconti in Paulovsk near Sanct-Peterbourg
[...] Koka asked Dad to go to Paulovsk for several days before they would leave for Gorodishche. Dad assented saying it was a good idea because Koka's sister Maria was just there at T�r�l�. She spent summer together with her husband Count Eugen Visconti, who had recently changed his occupation of architect for a position of Head of Division at the Ministry of Finances.
They arrived in Paulovsk by railway, branched straight into the Park, at the final station near ponds of the Big Star. This was the place of the famous Kursaal, and they remembered the summer 1886, when Koka was thirteen, and they both, together with Mummy and Koka's sisters Maria and Ludmilla, attended unforgettable splendid evening concerts of Johann Strauss there. This was the last visit of aged Strauss the Son to Paulovsk. Gold-shining Kursaal was overcrowded with aristocracy and military officers, pairs waltzed on the field in front of the huge Kursaal between two gigantic fountain-like lanterns. One could hear laugh, jokes, Russian, French and German jabber all around. The air was fragrant with perfume and the scent of flowers. It seemed as if the plenty of boats on the ponds waltzed in their turn.
Now Basily and Koka passed by lonely Kursaal through the empty field between two lanterns with their gigantic bunches of white lamp grapes hold on high cast-iron pillars by cast-iron Cupids who were stiff preserving the reminiscence of Johann Strauss forever.
The father and son stayed at the same house, as it was before 11 years. Differently from T�r�l� or Glazova, Nova Vies was not really a summer resort place, but simply an Izhorian village, where very few tenants, mostly families of poor military officers, might be met sometimes unexpectedly. A remote part of the Park was nearby, accidentally visited by holiday-makers, who had lost their way from New Silvia within the huge space of the White Birch. The peasants were not accustomed and had no time to enter the Park in their turn. This had an advantage over the resort places: one felt oneself as if having got into a strange Another World, beyond time and epochs, fully cut off from the reality of everyday life of the Empire, whether in Sanct-Peterbourg, or in Poland, or in Russia. Koka and his Dad belonged to themselves when they were sitting in their rooms in cool evenings and listening to the voices of their hosts speaking an incomprehensible melodious Finnish speech in the yard. The hostess brought to them fresh milk, respectfully greeting them in Russian.
They were as if counts in their estate. They could go deep into the Park until, after passing the whole White Birch or the New Silvia, they reached the Centre, the Ceremonial Field or the Old Silvia, with splendid pavilions and a lot of Antique marble and bronze statues there. These were places where other counts walked with their ladies, or boated on a pond, from which a shiny Grand Palace was seen. They all were free, � Koka dared to dream further, � nobody commanded them at Imperial Court, only God and His Majesty Emperor were above them.
The second day they went on foot to call on Maria and her husband. Visconti tenanted the ground floor of a huge summer cottage at the outskirts of Glazova. It was ten in the morning, the spouses were at home. The guests were received by Maria, Koka's eldest sister and the second child of Basily. She was a 36 years old brown-haired lady. She was almost as tall as Koka, with an oblong calm and earnest face, beautiful friendly looking greenish eyes, bent dark eyebrows and enough big nose. In spite of this prominent nose and recent tendency to corpulence, she was still handsome and attractive. She extinguished herself with strong but not loud voice, graceful deportment and slow motions. Maria joyfully kissed Dad and brother, and after short usual inquiry about health and life, took them to veranda, asking the housewife to bring coffee. Warm and sunny morning promised a very hot day. Through the open windows of spacious glass veranda another big cottage, shining with windowpanes, was seen beyond the garden, on the other side of the street, as well as a roof of one cottage more, buried in greenery further. Cottages were all around, tenanted mostly by generals or rich servicemen.
Talk started about Koka's service in Konin and about Eugen's, Maria's husband's, progress at the Ministry of Finances. It was just after coffee with its aroma had appeared on the broad table, when the count came in. Dad and son stood up to greet him with cheerful exclamations. Eugen looked young, although having grown bald enough, energetic, black haired, with brown eyes and thick black moustache. He kissed his father-in-law and embraced Koka. Eugen, white-dressed, in his shirtsleeves although with a bow-tie, was as elegant as his wife, who wore white silk summer frock. The spouses had been married more than ten years already but had no children. It was rumoured as if they had finally decided to adopt an orphan but could not agree, whether a boy or a girl.
Short after coffee they went for a walk in the Park. The way led to one mostly important place, of course. It started from the shadowy romantic entrance near Pavilion of the Beautiful Valley and went further through the valley of Venajoki, Russian Slavyanka, to the bridge and Tower of the Sawing Mill, but the second bridge with four big vases was namely the aim. This was the bridge of Visconti, built in 1802 by David Visconti, father of Eugen's great grandfather, who was ancestor of Peterbourg branch of this Italian family of architects. Count Eugen was an Italian by descent but a real Peterbourgian by origin: his grandmother was Emily Reinhold, a Peterbourg German, but his mother was Eudocia Djavakhishvili, a Georgian princess. Thus, being a Catholic, he possessed Lutheran and Orthodox �blood".
Having achieved the aim, they crossed Venajoki and visited the Hunters' House to have lunch. The way back was longer, by the Grand Palace and through the Concert Hall in the Big Star, through the Valley of Ponds and the Milk Farm outside the Park. It was especially pleasant to take dinner at the cottage of Visconti after such great walk. Basily and Koka came back to Nova Ves almost at midnight, kindly accompanied home by Count Eugen Visconti.
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