hful genius. The sudden death of Shubin's father very nearly
effected a complete transformation in the young man's future. The
senator, the patron of genius, made him a present of a bust of Homer
in plaster, and did nothing more. But Anna Vassilyevna helped him with
money, and at nineteen he scraped through into the university in the
faculty of medicine. Pavel felt no inclination for medical science, but,
as the university was then constituted, it was impossible for him to
enter in any other faculty. Besides, he looked forward to studying
anatomy. But he did not complete his anatomical studies; at the end of
the first year, and before the examination, he left the university to
devote himself exclusively to his vocation. He worked zealously, but
by fits and starts; he used to stroll about the country round Moscow
sketching and modelling portraits of peasant girls, and striking up
acquaintance with all sorts of people, young and old, of high and low
degree, Italian models and Russian artists. He would not hear of
the Academy, and recognised no one as a teacher. He was possessed of
unmistakeable talent; it began to be talked about in Moscow. His mother,
who came of a good Parisian family, a kind-hearted and clever woman, had
taught him French thoroughly and had toiled and thought for him day and
night. She was proud of him, and when, while still young in years, she
died of consumption, she entreated Anna Vassilyevna to take him under
her care. He was at that time twenty-one. Anna Vassilyevna carried out
her last wish; a small room in the lodge of the country villa was given
up to him.

IV

'Come to dinner, come along,' said the lady of the house in a plaintive
voice, and they all went into the dining-room. 'Sit beside me, _Zoe_,'
added Anna Vassilyevna, 'and you, Helene, take our guest; and you,
_Paul_, please don't be naughty and tease _Zoe_. My head aches to-day.'

Shubin again turned his eyes up to the ceiling; Zoe responded with
a half-smile. This Zoe, or, to speak more precisely, Zoya Nikitishna
Mueller, was a pretty, fair-haired, half-Russian German girl, with a
little nose rather wide at the end, and tiny red lips. She sang Russian
ballads fairly well and could play various pieces, both lively and
sentimental, very correctly on the piano. She dressed with taste, but in
a rather childish style, and even over-precisely. Anna Vassilyevna
had taken her as a companion for her daughter, and she kept her
almost