a
noble name and wealth, he was nevertheless on the verge of ruin. He had
given up his appointment as _Marechal de la Noblesse_, which he had gone
to his seat of Otradnoe to assume, because it entailed too many
expenses; and yet there was no improvement in the state of his finances.

Nicolas and Natacha, his son and daughter, often found their father and
mother in anxious consultation, talking in low tones of the sale of
their Moscow house or of their property in the neighborhood. Having thus
retired into private life, the count now gave neither fetes nor
entertainments. Life at Otradnoe was much less gay than in past years;
still, the house and domain were as full of servants as ever, and
twenty persons or more sat down to dinner daily. These were dependants,
friends, and intimates, who were regarded almost as part of the family,
or at any rate seemed unable to tear themselves away from it: among them
a musician named Dimmler and his wife, Ioghel the dancing-master and his
family, and old Mlle. Below, former governess of Natacha and Sonia, the
count's niece and adopted child, and now the tutor of Petia, his younger
son; besides others who found it simpler to live at the count's expense
than at their own. Thus, though there were no more festivities, life was
carried on almost as expensively as of old, and neither the master nor
the mistress ever imagined any change possible. Nicolas, again, had
added to the hunting establishment; there were still fifty horses in the
stables, still fifteen drivers; handsome presents were given on all
birthdays and fete days, which invariably wound up as of old with a
grand dinner to all the neighborhood; the count still played whist or
boston, invariably letting his cards be seen by his friends, who were
always ready to make up his table, and relieve him without hesitation of
the few hundred roubles which constituted their principal income. The
old man marched on blindfold through the tangle of his pecuniary
difficulties, trying to conceal them, and only succeeding in augmenting
them; having neither the courage nor the patience to untie the knots one
by one.

The loving heart by his side foresaw their children's ruin, but she
could not accuse her husband, who was, alas! too old for amendment; she
could only seek some remedy for the disaster. From her woman's point of
view there was but one: Nicolas's marriage, namely, with some rich
heiress. She clung desperately to this last chance of