s than enemies. For, of all types of men and
women upon earth, those into whom Euterpe has breathed her spirit, are
certainly the most practised in envy, hatred, malice and all
uncharitableness.

CHAPTER VIII

IN CAMP

It cannot be denied that, on that momentous evening, the marked interest
of the Grand-Duchess in Ivan and his general success, were out of all
proportion to a performance which, as a matter of fact, any one in the
room could probably have duplicated. True, Princess Helena's unerring
judgment had at once marked the originality, the distinctiveness, of the
young man's improvisation; though she did not fail also to mark his
numberless transgressions of the rigid laws of harmony. And Ivan
himself, when all was over, began to feel some little mortification that
he had so openly betrayed his pleasure in his accomplishment; and he
presently discovered that de Windt himself could teach him points in
progression and modification of which he knew nothing: whereupon, behold
him once again on fire to get to work at his long-delayed,
vaguely-foreshadowed profession.

His rendering of the now celebrated _barcarolle_, had given him an
unquestioned place in the _salon_ of the Grand-Duchess, which henceforth
he frequented regularly. And there he met with both adulation and
opposition. To his secret surprise, Rubinstein, together with his
co-adjutor Zaremba, professed great enthusiasm concerning him, and
unceasingly urged him to enter the Conservatoire. This, at length, he,
in the company of de Windt, tentatively did: taking his place in one of
Zaremba's classes of composition, and undertaking the study of
orchestration under Serov. Here Ivan showed himself phenomenally
prolific in the production of exercises; and he grasped the difficult
principles of composition in a remarkably short space of time.
Unfortunately, however, formal work did not content him; and one day he
carried to Rubinstein two or three eccentric little pieces, on which he
had expended both energy and admiration. Here, at last, the great Anton
found his opportunity. He whipped Ivan's work to rags with sarcastic
criticism; leaving not one measure untouched by his caustic and rather
brutal wit. Next day he received his young pupil's resignation from his
classes; and the gay world regained its pet. For Ivan, in a fit of
childish anger, left his work behind him, and plunged into a furious
round of dissipations, of which gambling now formed the c