r society, and that of her friends?"

"No, I have really an object in going... That is, I am going on business
it is difficult to explain, but..."

"Well, whether you go on business or not is your affair, I do not want
to know. The only important thing, in my eyes, is that you should not
be going there simply for the pleasure of spending your evening in such
company--cocottes, generals, usurers! If that were the case I should
despise and laugh at you. There are terribly few honest people here,
and hardly any whom one can respect, although people put on airs--Varia
especially! Have you noticed, prince, how many adventurers there are
nowadays? Especially here, in our dear Russia. How it has happened I
never can understand. There used to be a certain amount of solidity in
all things, but now what happens? Everything is exposed to the public
gaze, veils are thrown back, every wound is probed by careless fingers.
We are for ever present at an orgy of scandalous revelations. Parents
blush when they remember their old-fashioned morality. At Moscow lately
a father was heard urging his son to stop at nothing--at nothing, mind
you!--to get money! The press seized upon the story, of course, and now
it is public property. Look at my father, the general! See what he is,
and yet, I assure you, he is an honest man! Only... he drinks too much,
and his morals are not all we could desire. Yes, that's true! I pity
him, to tell the truth, but I dare not say so, because everybody would
laugh at me--but I do pity him! And who are the really clever men, after
all? Money-grubbers, every one of them, from the first to the last.
Hippolyte finds excuses for money-lending, and says it is a necessity.
He talks about the economic movement, and the ebb and flow of capital;
the devil knows what he means. It makes me angry to hear him talk so,
but he is soured by his troubles. Just imagine-the general keeps his
mother-but she lends him money! She lends it for a week or ten days
at very high interest! Isn't it disgusting? And then, you would hardly
believe it, but my mother--Nina Alexandrovna--helps Hippolyte in all
sorts of ways, sends him money and clothes. She even goes as far as
helping the children, through Hippolyte, because their mother cares
nothing about them, and Varia does the same."

"Well, just now you said there were no honest nor good people about,
that there were only money-grubbers--and here they are quite close at
hand, these honest