it was
too late--there he was, and got up, too, in a dress coat and white tie,
and Nastasia in the very humour to heap ridicule on him and his family
circle; of this last fact, he felt quite persuaded. What else had she
come for? There were his mother and his sister sitting before her, and
she seemed to have forgotten their very existence already; and if she
behaved like that, he thought, she must have some object in view.

Ferdishenko led the general up to Nastasia Philipovna.

"Ardalion Alexandrovitch Ivolgin," said the smiling general, with a low
bow of great dignity, "an old soldier, unfortunate, and the father
of this family; but happy in the hope of including in that family so
exquisite--"

He did not finish his sentence, for at this moment Ferdishenko pushed
a chair up from behind, and the general, not very firm on his legs,
at this post-prandial hour, flopped into it backwards. It was always a
difficult thing to put this warrior to confusion, and his sudden
descent left him as composed as before. He had sat down just opposite to
Nastasia, whose fingers he now took, and raised to his lips with great
elegance, and much courtesy. The general had once belonged to a very
select circle of society, but he had been turned out of it two or three
years since on account of certain weaknesses, in which he now indulged
with all the less restraint; but his good manners remained with him to
this day, in spite of all.

Nastasia Philipovna seemed delighted at the appearance of this latest
arrival, of whom she had of course heard a good deal by report.

"I have heard that my son--" began Ardalion Alexandrovitch.

"Your son, indeed! A nice papa you are! YOU might have come to see me
anyhow, without compromising anyone. Do you hide yourself, or does your
son hide you?"

"The children of the nineteenth century, and their parents--" began the
general, again.

"Nastasia Philipovna, will you excuse the general for a moment?
Someone is inquiring for him," said Nina Alexandrovna in a loud voice,
interrupting the conversation.

"Excuse him? Oh no, I have wished to see him too long for that. Why,
what business can he have? He has retired, hasn't he? You won't leave
me, general, will you?"

"I give you my word that he shall come and see you--but he--he needs
rest just now."

"General, they say you require rest," said Nastasia Philipovna, with the
melancholy face of a child whose toy is taken away.

Ardalion Alexandrovitch i