ng superseded from Petersburg. I've
heard it from lots of people."

"I've heard it too," I put in.

"Who said so?" asked Yulia Mihailovna, flushing all over.

"You mean, who said so first? How can I tell? But there it is, people
say so. Masses of people are saying so. They were saying so yesterday
particularly. They are all very serious about it, though I can't make it
out. Of course the more intelligent and competent don't talk, but even
some of those listen."

"How mean! And... how stupid!"

"Well, that's just why you must make your appearance, to show these
fools."

"I confess I feel myself that it's my duty, but... what if there's
another disgrace in store for us? What if people don't come? No one will
come, you know, no one!"

"How hot you are! They not come! What about the new clothes? What about
the girls' dresses? I give you up as a woman after that! Is that your
knowledge of human nature?"

"The marshal's wife won't come, she won't."

"But, after all, what has happened? Why won't they come?" he cried at
last with angry impatience.

"Ignominy, disgrace--that's what's happened. I don't know what to call
it, but after it I can't face people."

"Why? How are you to blame for it, after all? Why do you take the blame
of it on yourself? Isn't it rather the fault of the audience, of
your respectable residents, your patresfamilias? They ought to have
controlled the roughs and the rowdies--for it was all the work of roughs
and rowdies, nothing serious. You can never manage things with the
police alone in any society, anywhere. Among us every one asks for
a special policeman to protect him wherever he goes. People don't
understand that society must protect itself. And what do our
patresfamilias, the officials, the wives and daughters, do in such
cases? They sit quiet and sulk. In fact there's not enough social
initiative to keep the disorderly in check."

"Ah, that's the simple truth! They sit quiet, sulk and... gaze about
them."

"And if it's the truth, you ought to say so aloud, proudly, sternly,
just to show that you are not defeated, to those respectable residents
and mothers of families. Oh, you can do it; you have the gift when your
head is clear. You will gather them round you and say it aloud. And
then a paragraph in the _Voice_ and the _Financial News._ Wait a bit, I'll
undertake it myself, I'll arrange it all for you. Of course there must
be more superintendence: you must look after the buffet;