the manservant
who had brought him in his coffee.

'What do you want?' he asked him.

'Nikolai Artemyevitch,' said the man with a certain solemnity, 'you are
our master?'

'I know that; what next!'

'Nikolai Artemyevitch, graciously do not be angry with me; but I, having
been in your honour's service from a boy, am bound in dutiful devotion
to bring you----'

'Well what is it?'

The man shifted uneasily as he stood.

'You condescended to say, your honour,' he began, 'that your honour did
not know where Elena Nikolaevna was pleased to go. I have information
about that.'

'What lies are you telling, idiot?'

'That's as your honour likes, but T saw our young lady three days ago,
as she was pleased to go into a house!'

'Where? what? what house?'

'In a house, near Povarsky. Not far from here. I even asked the
doorkeeper who were the people living there.'

Nikolai Artemyevitch stamped with his feet.

'Silence, scoundrel! How dare you?... Elena Nikolaevna, in the goodness
of her heart, goes to visit the poor and you... Be off, fool!'

The terrified servant was rushing to the door.

'Stop!' cried Nikolai Artemyevitch. 'What did the doorkeeper say to
you?'

'Oh no--nothing--he said nothing--He told me--a stu--student----'

'Silence, scoundrel! Listen, you dirty beast; if you ever breathe a word
in your dreams even----'

'Mercy on us----'

'Silence! if you blab--if any one--if I find out--you shall find no
hiding-place even underground! Do you hear? You can go!'

The man vanished.

'Good Heavens, merciful powers! what does it mean?' thought Nikolai
Artemyevitch when he was left alone. 'What did that idiot tell me? Eh? I
shall have to find out, though, what house it is, and who lives there.
I must go myself. Has it come to this!... _Un laquais! Quelle
humiliation!_'

And repeating aloud: '_Un laquais!_' Nikolai Artemyevitch shut the
dressing-case up in the bureau, and went up to Anna Vassilyevna. He
found her in bed with her face tied up. But the sight of her sufferings
only irritated him, and he very soon reduced her to tears.

XXX

Meanwhile the storm gathering in the East was breaking. Turkey had
declared war on Russia; the time fixed for the evacuation of the
Principalities had already expired, the day of the disaster of Sinope
was not far off. The last letters received by Insarov summoned him
urgently to his country. His health was not yet restored; he coughed,
suffered from weakne