l. Nina Alexandrovna my wife, is an excellent
woman, so is my daughter Varvara. We have to let lodgings because we are
poor--a dreadful, unheard-of come-down for us--for me, who should
have been a governor-general; but we are very glad to have YOU, at all
events. Meanwhile there is a tragedy in the house."

The prince looked inquiringly at the other.

"Yes, a marriage is being arranged--a marriage between a questionable
woman and a young fellow who might be a flunkey. They wish to bring this
woman into the house where my wife and daughter reside, but while I
live and breathe she shall never enter my doors. I shall lie at the
threshold, and she shall trample me underfoot if she does. I hardly
talk to Gania now, and avoid him as much as I can. I warn you of this
beforehand, but you cannot fail to observe it. But you are the son of my
old friend, and I hope--"

"Prince, be so kind as to come to me for a moment in the drawing-room,"
said Nina Alexandrovna herself, appearing at the door.

"Imagine, my dear," cried the general, "it turns out that I have nursed
the prince on my knee in the old days." His wife looked searchingly at
him, and glanced at the prince, but said nothing. The prince rose and
followed her; but hardly had they reached the drawing-room, and Nina
Alexandrovna had begun to talk hurriedly, when in came the general.
She immediately relapsed into silence. The master of the house may have
observed this, but at all events he did not take any notice of it; he
was in high good humour.

"A son of my old friend, dear," he cried; "surely you must remember
Prince Nicolai Lvovitch? You saw him at--at Tver."

"I don't remember any Nicolai Lvovitch, Was that your father?" she
inquired of the prince.

"Yes, but he died at Elizabethgrad, not at Tver," said the prince,
rather timidly. "So Pavlicheff told me."

"No, Tver," insisted the general; "he removed just before his death. You
were very small and cannot remember; and Pavlicheff, though an excellent
fellow, may have made a mistake."

"You knew Pavlicheff then?"

"Oh, yes--a wonderful fellow; but I was present myself. I gave him my
blessing."

"My father was just about to be tried when he died," said the prince,
"although I never knew of what he was accused. He died in hospital."

"Oh! it was the Kolpakoff business, and of course he would have been
acquitted."

"Yes? Do you know that for a fact?" asked the prince, whose curiosity
was aroused by the gener