him is
the list of promotions, retirements, and Imperial rewards for merit and
seniority. When he sees the announcement that some old comrade has been
made an officer of his Majesty's suite or has received a grand cordon,
he frowns a little more than usual, and is tempted to regret that he
retired from the service. Had he waited patiently, perhaps a bit of
good fortune might have fallen likewise to his lot. This idea takes
possession of him, and during the remainder of the day he is taciturn
and morose. His wife notices the change, and knows the reason of it, but
has too much good sense and tact to make any allusion to the subject.

Anna Alexandrovna--as the good lady is called--is an elderly dame
who does not at all resemble the wife of Ivan Ivan'itch. She was long
accustomed to a numerous military society, with dinner-parties, dancing,
promenades, card-playing, and all the other amusements of garrison life,
and she never contracted a taste for domestic concerns. Her knowledge of
culinary affairs is extremely vague, and she has no idea of how to
make preserves, nalivka, and other home-made delicacies, though Maria
Petrovna, who is universally acknowledged to be a great adept in such
matters, has proposed a hundred times to give her some choice recipes.
In short, domestic affairs are a burden to her, and she entrusts them
as far as possible to the housekeeper. Altogether she finds country life
very tiresome, but, possessing that placid, philosophical temperament
which seems to have some casual connection with corpulence, she submits
without murmuring, and tries to lighten a little the unavoidable
monotony by paying visits and receiving visitors. The neighbours within
a radius of twenty miles are, with few exceptions, more or less of
the Ivan Ivan'itch and Maria Petrovna type--decidedly rustic in their
manners and conceptions; but their company is better than absolute
solitude, and they have at least the good quality of being always able
and willing to play cards for any number of hours. Besides this, Anna
Alexandrovna has the satisfaction of feeling that amongst them she is
almost a great personage, and unquestionably an authority in all matters
of taste and fashion; and she feels specially well disposed towards
those of them who frequently address her as "Your Excellency."

The chief festivities take place on the "name-days" of the General and
his spouse--that is to say, the days sacred to St. Nicholas and
St. Anna. O