the first
approach of cold weather, Varvara Pavlovna, having provided herself with
funds, removed to Petersburg, where she took a modest but charming set
of apartments, found for her by Panshin; who had left the O-----district
a little before. During the latter part of his residence in O----- he
had completely lost Marya Dmitrievna's good graces; he had suddenly
given up visiting her and scarcely stirred from Lavriky. Varvara
Pavolvna had enslaved him, literally enslaved him, no other word can
describe her boundless, irresistible, unquestioned sway over him.

Lavretsky spent the winter in Moscow; and in the spring of the
following year the news reached him that Lisa had taken the veil in the
B-----convent, in one of the remote parts of Russia.

Epilogue

Eight years had passed by. Once more the spring had come.... But we will
say a few words first of the fate of Mihalevitch, Panshin, and Madame
Laverestky--and then take leave of them. Mihalevitch, after long
wanderings, has at last fallen in with exactly the right work for him;
he has received the position of senior superintendent of a government
school. He is very well content with his lot; his pupils adore him,
though they mimick him too. Panshin has gained great advancement in
rank, and already has a directorship in view; he walks with a slight
stoop, caused doubtless by the weight round his neck of the Vladimir
cross which has been conferred on him. The official in him has finally
gained the ascendency over the artist; his still youngish face has grown
yellow, and his hair scanty; he now neither sings nor sketches, but
applies himself in secret to literature; he has written a comedy, in
the style of a "proverb," and as nowadays all writers have to draw a
portrait of some one or something, he has drawn in it the portrait of
a coquette, and he reads it privately to two or three ladies who look
kindly upon him. He has, however, not entered upon matrimony, though
many excellent opportunities of doing so have presented themselves. For
this Varvara Pavlovna was responsible. As for her, she lives constantly
at Paris, as in former days. Fedor Ivanitch has given her a promissory
note for a large sum, and has so secured immunity from the possibility
of her making a second sudden descent upon him. She has grown older and
stouter, but is still charming and elegant. Every one has his ideal.
Varvara Pavlovna found hers in the dramatic works of M. Dumas Fils.
She diligen