not very
intelligent, but straightforward and honest, not a bully, not a
fop, and not a rake--virtues which, in the eyes of the general
public, are equivalent to a certificate of being a nonentity and a
poor creature. People generally did not like him (he was never
spoken of in the district, except as "the illustrious duffer"). I
personally found the poor prince extremely nice with his misfortunes
and failures, which made up indeed his whole life. First of all he
was poor. He did not play cards, did not drink, had no occupation,
did not poke his nose into anything, and maintained a perpetual
silence but yet he had somehow succeeded in getting through thirty
to forty thousand roubles left him at his father's death. God only
knows what had become of the money. All that I can say is that owing
to lack of supervision a great deal was stolen by stewards, bailiffs,
and even footmen; a great deal went on lending money, giving bail,
and standing security. There were few landowners in the district
who did not owe him money. He gave to all who asked, and not so
much from good nature or confidence in people as from exaggerated
gentlemanliness as though he would say: "Take it and feel how _comme
il faut_ I am!" By the time I made his acquaintance he had got into
debt himself, had learned what it was like to have a second mortgage
on his land, and had sunk so deeply into difficulties that there
was no chance of his ever getting out of them again. There were
days when he had no dinner, and went about with an empty cigar-holder,
but he was always seen clean and fashionably dressed, and always
smelt strongly of ylang-ylang.

The prince's second misfortune was his absolute solitariness. He
was not married, he had no friends nor relations. His silent and
reserved character and his _comme il faut_ deportment, which became
the more conspicuous the more anxious he was to conceal his poverty,
prevented him from becoming intimate with people. For love affairs
he was too heavy, spiritless, and cold, and so rarely got on with
women. . . .

When we reached the forest this prince and I got out of the chaise
and walked along a narrow woodland path which was hidden among huge
ferns. But before we had gone a hundred paces a tall, lank figure
with a long oval face, wearing a shabby reefer jacket, a straw hat,
and patent leather boots, rose up from behind a young fir-tree some
three feet high, as though he had sprung out of the ground. The
strang