It has come to my attention, dear readers, that a certain Madame Natalia Rudova, a lady of the theatre and cinema, has felt the irresistible urge to broadcast her newest acquisition to the entire world. In an age where modesty is as extinct as the dodo, our dear lady has seen fit to share a moving picture of a most peculiar ritual: the 'unboxing' of a parcel.

Imagine, if you will, the scene: a bright orange box from the house of Hermes, opened with a flourish that would make a stage magician blush. Within lay a red accessory with brown trim—a trifle costing some two hundred and thirty-five thousand roubles. One cannot help but admire the courage it takes to spend such a sum on a vessel intended merely to carry one's handkerchiefs and gossip.

Indeed, this is not the first time this particular lady has succumbed to the temptations of the milliner and the couturier. Only this past March, she graced us with a display of leather attire—a jacket adorned with fur and a diminutive skirt—the total of which reached a sum that would sustain a small village for a season.

One must ask, gentlemen: is this not the very essence of that tedious philistinism we so dread? To believe that a piece of leather or a bit of fur confers a certain nobility upon the wearer is a delusion of the most exquisite sort. A hat may be grand, a bag may be costly, but alas, the soul remains quite independent of the price tag.