d came, in the end,
to treating the master of the house with condescension. It was asserted
that when Virginsky's wife had announced to him that he was superseded
he said to her:

"My dear, hitherto I have only loved you, but now I respect you," but I
doubt whether this renunciation, worthy of ancient Rome, was ever really
uttered. On the contrary they say that he wept violently. A fortnight
after he was superseded, all of them, in a "family party," went one day
for a picnic to a wood outside the town to drink tea with their friends.
Virginsky was in a feverishly lively mood and took part in the dances.
But suddenly, without any preliminary quarrel, he seized the giant
Lebyadkin with both hands, by the hair, just as the latter was dancing
a can-can solo, pushed him down, and began dragging him along with
shrieks, shouts, and tears. The giant was so panic-stricken that he did
not attempt to defend himself, and hardly uttered a sound all the time
he was being dragged along. But afterwards he resented it with all the
heat of an honourable man. Virginsky spent a whole night on his knees
begging his wife's forgiveness. But this forgiveness was not granted, as
he refused to apologise to Lebyadkin; moreover, he was upbraided for the
meanness of his ideas and his foolishness, the latter charge based on
the fact that he knelt down in the interview with his wife. The captain
soon disappeared and did not reappear in our town till quite lately,
when he came with his sister, and with entirely different aims; but
of him later. It was no wonder that the poor young husband sought our
society and found comfort in it. But he never spoke of his home-life to
us. On one occasion only, returning with me from Stepan Trofimovitch's,
he made a remote allusion to his position, but clutching my hand at once
he cried ardently:

"It's of no consequence. It's only a personal incident. It's no
hindrance to the 'cause,' not the slightest!"

Stray guests visited our circle too; a Jew, called Lyamshin, and a
Captain Kartusov came. An old gentleman of inquiring mind used to come
at one time, but he died. Liputin brought an exiled Polish priest called
Slontsevsky, and for a time we received him on principle, but afterwards
we didn't keep it up.

IX

At one time it was reported about the town that our little circle was a
hotbed of nihilism, profligacy, and godlessness, and the rumour gained
more and more strength. And yet we did nothing but indulge