n Heidelberg, perfecting that mathematical genius that was to
make her known throughout the scientific world. Following her brilliant
example, went a small army of young, upright and earnest women and
girls, by whom half the universities in Europe were presently invaded,
by no means, as was soon learned, to the detriment of the collegiate
standing, either in ethics or in learning. And as college after college
opened its doors to these young seekers after truth, bigoted Russia
stood aghast at the incalculable prospect of the future.

More knowledge of these facts, and information of and experience in half
a hundred other matters, did Petersburg promise its new lieutenant; and
the more he thought of it all, the more eager did he become to embark at
once upon this new existence. Nor was the time of his departure far
away. He was just a month past his twentieth birthday when, upon a
bitter October morning, he was admitted once more to his father's
sanctum, this time to say good-bye. During the brief interview, Michael
exhibited a touch of feeling, perceiving which Ivan felt a brief pang
that he could not match it. But when a roll of twenty-five hundred
rubles was placed in his hands as the allowance for his first six
months, the young man's gratitude was sincere enough and deep enough to
satisfy the father, who knew more than his son of the expenses entailed
by a life in one of the crack regiments of the guard, and who informed
Ivan a little sarcastically that his lieutenant's pay ought not to do
more than keep him properly gloved and shod.

By the time he emerged from that celebrated closet, with his commission,
his passport, and three letters of recommendation, together with his
money, in his uniform pockets, Ivan found that his hand-luggage had
already been carried out and placed in the sleigh that was to carry him
on the first brief stage of his journey into the great world. And, as he
left the palace and entered the square, his officer's swagger was just a
trifle overdone. For he had shot up, as it were, in a night: he was
twenty and a personage at last!

The journey northward across the snowy flats was all a delight to the
traveller. Those odd little first trains that ran over the famous "ruler
line" between the two Russian capitals, were still sources of wonder and
delight to the peasants of the scattered villages now beginning to
spring up along the railway; and each stopping-point found the train
surrounded by a