It was in July 1805 and t July and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pávlovna Schérer maid of honor and favorite of the Emp­ress Márya Fëdorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasì­li Kurágin a man of high rank and importance who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pávlovna had had a cough for some days. She was as she said suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg used only by the elite.