er
success in bringing local society together, and for making things
more lively. Several scandalous incidents took place, for which Yulia
Mihailovna was in no way responsible, but at the time people were amused
and did nothing but laugh, and there was no one to check them. A rather
large group of people, it is true, held themselves aloof, and had views
of their own on the course of events. But even these made no complaint
at the time; they smiled, in fact.

I remember that a fairly large circle came into existence, as it were,
spontaneously, the centre of which perhaps was really to be found
in Yulia Mihailovna's drawing-room. In this intimate circle which
surrounded her, among the younger members of it, of course, it was
considered admissible to play all sorts of pranks, sometimes rather
free-and-easy ones, and, in fact, such conduct became a principle among
them. In this circle there were even some very charming ladies. The
young people arranged picnics, and even parties, and sometimes went
about the town in a regular cavalcade, in carriages and on horseback.
They sought out adventures, even got them up themselves, simply for the
sake of having an amusing story to tell. They treated our town as though
it were a sort of Glupov. People called them the jeerers or sneerers,
because they did not stick at anything. It happened, for instance, that
the wife of a local lieutenant, a little brunette, very young though she
looked worn out from her husband's ill-treatment, at an evening party
thoughtlessly sat down to play whist for high stakes in the fervent hope
of winning enough to buy herself a mantle, and instead of winning, lost
fifteen roubles. Being afraid of her husband, and having no means of
paying, she plucked up the courage of former days and ventured on the
sly to ask for a loan, on the spot, at the party, from the son of our
mayor, a very nasty youth, precociously vicious. The latter not only
refused it, but went laughing aloud to tell her husband. The lieutenant,
who certainly was poor, with nothing but his salary, took his wife home
and avenged himself upon her to his heart's content in spite of her
shrieks, wails, and entreaties on her knees for forgiveness. This
revolting story excited nothing but mirth all over the town, and though
the poor wife did not belong to Yulia Mihailovna's circle, one of the
ladies of the "cavalcade," an eccentric and adventurous character who
happened to know her, drove round, and s