l, though
he was a man of lowly origin, and of poor education, was, for all that,
an experienced and talented husband and father. Among other things,
he considered it undesirable to hurry his daughters to the matrimonial
altar and to worry them too much with assurances of his paternal wishes
for their happiness, as is the custom among parents of many grown-up
daughters. He even succeeded in ranging his wife on his side on this
question, though he found the feat very difficult to accomplish, because
unnatural; but the general's arguments were conclusive, and founded upon
obvious facts. The general considered that the girls' taste and good
sense should be allowed to develop and mature deliberately, and that the
parents' duty should merely be to keep watch, in order that no strange
or undesirable choice be made; but that the selection once effected,
both father and mother were bound from that moment to enter heart and
soul into the cause, and to see that the matter progressed without
hindrance until the altar should be happily reached.

Besides this, it was clear that the Epanchins' position gained each
year, with geometrical accuracy, both as to financial solidity and
social weight; and, therefore, the longer the girls waited, the better
was their chance of making a brilliant match.

But again, amidst the incontrovertible facts just recorded, one more,
equally significant, rose up to confront the family; and this was,
that the eldest daughter, Alexandra, had imperceptibly arrived at her
twenty-fifth birthday. Almost at the same moment, Afanasy Ivanovitch
Totski, a man of immense wealth, high connections, and good standing,
announced his intention of marrying. Afanasy Ivanovitch was a gentleman
of fifty-five years of age, artistically gifted, and of most refined
tastes. He wished to marry well, and, moreover, he was a keen admirer
and judge of beauty.

Now, since Totski had, of late, been upon terms of great cordiality with
Epanchin, which excellent relations were intensified by the fact that
they were, so to speak, partners in several financial enterprises, it
so happened that the former now put in a friendly request to the general
for counsel with regard to the important step he meditated. Might he
suggest, for instance, such a thing as a marriage between himself and
one of the general's daughters?

Evidently the quiet, pleasant current of the family life of the
Epanchins was about to undergo a change.

The undoubt