time
of the catastrophe with her son, our other local Minervas may well be
pardoned for their temporary aberration. Now all this is attributed,
as I have mentioned already, to the _Internationale._ This idea has taken
such root that it is given as the explanation to visitors from other
parts. Only lately councillor Kubrikov, a man of sixty-two, with the
Stanislav Order on his breast, came forward uninvited and confessed in
a voice full of feeling that he had beyond a shadow of doubt been for
fully three months under the influence of the _Internationale._ When with
every deference for his years and services he was invited to be more
definite, he stuck firmly to his original statement, though he could
produce no evidence except that "he had felt it in all his feelings," so
that they cross-examined him no further.

I repeat again, there was still even among us a small group who held
themselves aloof from the beginning, and even locked themselves up. But
what lock can stand against a law of nature? Daughters will grow up even
in the most careful families, and it is essential for grown-up daughters
to dance.

And so all these people, too, ended by subscribing to the governesses'
fund.

The ball was assumed to be an entertainment so brilliant, so
unprecedented; marvels were told about it; there were rumours of princes
from a distance with lorgnettes; of ten stewards, all young dandies,
with rosettes on their left shoulder; of some Petersburg people who
were setting the thing going; there was a rumour that Karmazinov had
consented to increase the subscriptions to the fund by reading his _Merci_
in the costume of the governesses of the district; that there would be
a literary quadrille all in costume, and every costume would symbolise
some special line of thought; and finally that "honest Russian thought"
would dance in costume--which would certainly be a complete novelty in
itself. Who could resist subscribing? Every one subscribed.

II

The programme of the fete was divided into two parts: the literary
matinee from midday till four o'clock, and afterwards a ball from ten
o'clock onwards through the night. But in this very programme there lay
concealed germs of disorder. In the first place, from the very beginning
a rumour had gained ground among the public concerning a luncheon
immediately after the literary matinee, or even while it was going
on, during an interval arranged expressly for it--a free luncheon, of
cour