by complete, humiliating despair that could not be
disguised--who knows, in another minute he might have sobbed aloud.
For the first moment Stepan Trofimovitch looked wildly at him; then he
suddenly bowed his head and in a voice pregnant with feeling pronounced:

"Your Excellency, don't trouble yourself with my petulant complaint, and
only give orders for my books and letters to be restored to me...."

He was interrupted. At that very instant Yulia Mihailovna returned and
entered noisily with all the party which had accompanied her. But at
this point I should like to tell my story in as much detail as possible.

III

In the first place, the whole company who had filled three carriages
crowded into the waiting-room. There was a special entrance to Yulia
Mihailovna's apartments on the left as one entered the house; but on
this occasion they all went through the waiting-room--and I imagine just
because Stepan Trofimovitch was there, and because all that had happened
to him as well as the Shpigulin affair had reached Yulia Mihailovna's
ears as she drove into the town. Lyamshin, who for some misdemeanour
had not been invited to join the party and so knew all that had been
happening in the town before anyone else, brought her the news. With
spiteful glee he hired a wretched Cossack nag and hastened on the way
to Skvoreshniki to meet the returning cavalcade with the diverting
intelligence. I fancy that, in spite of her lofty determination, Yulia
Mihailovna was a little disconcerted on hearing such surprising news,
but probably only for an instant. The political aspect of the affair,
for instance, could not cause her uneasiness; Pyotr Stepanovitch had
impressed upon her three or four times that the Shpigulin ruffians ought
to be flogged, and Pyotr Stepanovitch certainly had for some time past
been a great authority in her eyes. "But... anyway, I shall make him pay
for it," she doubtless reflected, the "he," of course, referring to
her spouse. I must observe in passing that on this occasion, as though
purposely, Pyotr Stepanovitch had taken no part in the expedition,
and no one had seen him all day. I must mention too, by the way, that
Varvara Petrovna had come back to the town with her guests (in the
same carriage with Yulia Mihailovna) in order to be present at the last
meeting of the committee which was arranging the fete for the next day.
She too must have been interested, and perhaps even agitated, by the
news about S