...of a statue

The late lamented Odintsov disliked innovations, but he was not averse to what he called 'a certain play of elevated taste' and as a consequence of this had erected in his garden, between the greenhouse and the pond, a structure resembling a Grecian portico built of Russian brick. In the rear wall of the portico or gallery six niches had been made for statues which Odintsov had intended to order from abroad. These statues were to have represented Solitariness, Silence, Contemplation, Melancholy, Modesty and Sensitivity. One of them, the Goddess of Silence, with a finger to her lips, had actually been delivered and set in place, but on the very same day little boys from the manor house had knocked off the nose and, although a local plasterer had undertaken to give her a nose 'twice as good as the original', Odintsov ordered her to be removed and she was found a place in the corner of the threshing barn where she stood for many long years, giving rise to superstitious horror among the peasant women. The facade of the portico had long since become overgrown with thick vegetation and only the capitals of the columns were visible above the solid greenery. Within the portico itself it was cool, even at midday. Anna Sergeevna did not like visiting the place ever since she had seen a grass-snake there, but Katya often went there to sit on a large stone seat which had been set below one of the niches. Surrounded by freshness and shade, she used to take her work there and read or give herself up to that feeling of complete tranquility which is probably familiar to everyone and whose charm consists in a scarcely conscious, silent attentiveness to the broad wave of live which ceaselessly rolls both around and within us.

[Fathers and Sons, Turgenev, I.]