ith him!
Ah! how glad I am for my brother I And Natalya, is she bright and
happy?'

'Yes. She is quiet, as she always is. You know her--but she seems
contented.'

The evening was spent in friendly and lively talk. They sat down to
supper.

'Oh, by the way,' inquired Lezhnyov of Bassistoff, as he poured him out
some Lafitte, 'do you know where Rudin is?'

'I don't know for certain now. He came last winter to Moscow for a short
time, and then went with a family to Simbirsk. I corresponded with
him for some time; in his last letter he informed me he was leaving
Simbirsk--he did not say where he was going--and since then I have heard
nothing of him.'

'He is all right!' put in Pigasov. 'He is staying somewhere sermonising.
That gentleman will always find two or three adherents everywhere, to
listen to him open-mouthed and lend him money. You will see he will end
by dying in some out-of-the-way corner in the arms of an old maid in a
wig, who will believe he is the greatest genius in the world.'

'You speak very harshly of him,' remarked Bassistoff, in a displeased
undertone.

'Not a bit harshly,' replied Pigasov; 'but perfectly fairly. In my
opinion, he is simply nothing else than a sponge. I forgot to tell you,'
he continued, turning to Lezhnyov, 'that I have made the acquaintance of
that Terlahov, with whom Rudin travelled abroad. Yes! Yes! What he told
me of him, you cannot imagine--it's simply screaming! It's a remarkable
fact that all Rudin's friends and admirers become in time his enemies.'

'I beg you to except me from the number of such friends!' interposed
Bassistoff warmly.

'Oh, you--that's a different thing! I was not speaking of you.'

'But what did Terlahov tell you?' asked Alexandra Pavlovna.

'Oh, he told me a great deal; there's no remembering it all. But
the best of all was an anecdote of what happened to Rudin. As he was
incessantly developing (these gentlemen always are developing; other
people simply sleep and eat; but they manage their sleeping and eating
in the intervals of development; isn't that it, Mr. Bassistoff?'
Bassistoff made no reply.) 'And so, as he was continually developing,
Rudin arrived at the conclusion, by means of philosophy, that he ought
to fall in love. He began to look about for a sweetheart worthy of
such an astonishing conclusion. Fortune smiled upon him. He made the
acquaintance of a very pretty French dressmaker. The whole incident
occurred in a German town on th