, you
could not have selected a better _lanceuse_ than Countess Caroline! On
my word, your saint favors you!"

And Ivan, who shrugged away the whole affair, found Monsieur de Windt
perfectly right. Fortune had stationed herself at his shoulder, at last;
and the young man did well docilely to obey her whispered directions. In
a month, there were a thousand young men about town, far above the
station of a Gregoriev, who would have given half their prospects for
Ivan's present position. But the fickle goddess loves well to show her
face to him who has never sought to lift her veil; and to Ivan, whom she
had hitherto served so ill, she chose suddenly to shower with all the
things that youth desires. The young man found that, many and varied as
had been his dreams of the new life, reality surpassed them all. Work,
consisting of regimental duties and musical study, had taken a large
place in his mental picture of the present; and these things, with an
occasional holiday spent in exploring the new city, or, better, alone in
the company of his aunt, were to constitute all his work and recreation.
Moreover, he had, perhaps, secretly pictured himself neglecting his
prescribed duties for those musical studies which he had hoped at last
to undertake seriously, at the recently founded Conservatoire: perhaps
under its founder and chief instructor, the great Rubinstein; at least
under the second professor, the worshipful Zaremba, whilom conductor of
the opera.--These occupations, conceived during long, wakeful nights in
the dormitory of the Corps, at Moscow, had seemed to him, at that time,
details of a nearly perfect life. But Lieutenant Gregoriev of the
imperial guard, man-about-town and nephew of Countess Dravikine, could
afford to laugh at his childish ideas of a "manly" existence.

First of all, Ivan soon discovered that, in winter, regimental duties
were practically nil. Half the privates of his regiment had been
dismissed to their native villages. The rest, though nominally in
barracks, and paraded once or twice a month (very badly), were wont to
eke out their half-pay (supposed to be whole, but actually shared with
two lofty administrators whose names were known to a certain astute
Moscow official) by working in the Artels that ply their various crafts
in the Russian cities throughout the winter season. The chief duty of
the officers, then, was to act as escort to members of the royal family
when they took formal outings, or