tly frequents the theatres, when consumptive and sentimental
"dames aux camelias" are brought on the stage; to be Madame Doche seems
to her the height of human bliss; she once declared that she did not
desire a better fate for her own daughter. It is to be hoped that fate
will spare Mademoiselle Ada from such happiness; from a rosy-cheeked,
chubby child she has turned into a weak-chested, pale girl; her nerves
are already deranged. The number of Varvara Pavlovna adorers has
diminished, but she still has some; a few she will probably retain to
the end of her days. The most ardent of them in these later days is a
certain Zakurdalo-Skubrinikov, a retired guardsman, a full-bearded man
of thirty-eight, of exceptionally vigorous physique. The French habitues
of Madame Lavretsky's salon call him "le gros taureau de l'Ukraine;"
Varvara Pavlovna never invites him to her fashionable evening reunions,
but he is in the fullest enjoyment of her favours.

And so--eight years have passed by. Once more the breezes of spring
breathed brightness and rejoicing from the heavens; once more spring
was smiling upon the earth and upon men; once more under her caresses
everything was turning to blossom, to love, to song. The town of
O-----had undergone little change in the course of these eight
years; but Marya Dmitrievna's house seemed to have grown younger; its
freshly-painted walls gave a bright welcome, and the panes of its open
windows were crimson, shining in the setting sun; from these windows the
light merry sound of ringing young voices and continual laughter floated
into the street; the whole house seemed astir with life and brimming
over with gaiety. The lady of the house herself had long been in her
tomb; Marya Dmitrievna had died two years after Lisa took the veil, and
Mafa Timofyevna had not long survived her niece; they lay side by side
in the cemetery of the town. Nastasya Karpovna too was no more; for
several years! the faithful old woman had gone every week to say a
prayer over her friend's ashes..... Her time had come, and now her bones
too lay in the damp earth. But Marya Dmitreivna's house had not passed
into stranger's hands, it had not gone out of her family, the home had
not been broken upon. Lenotchka, transformed into a slim, beautiful
young girl, and her betrothed lover--a fair-haired officer of hussars;
Marya Dmitrievna's son, who had just been married in Petersburg and had
come with his young wife for the spring to O