d
Susoitchik may be of use to you."

No sooner had the young folk made their bow than old Lyoff Tolstoy
appeared with Prince Urusof.

"Aha! so it's the old boy! Many thanks to Tanyitchka. It's a long time
since I have seen you, old chap. Well and hearty? And what can I do for
you?"

Lyoff Tolstoy shuffled about, rather abashed.

Prince Urusof, mindful of the etiquette of diplomatic receptions,
stepped forward and explained Tolstoy's appearance by his wish to make
acquaintance with Tatyana Andreyevna's oldest and most faithful friend.

"Les amis des nos amis sont nos amis."

"Ha! ha! ha! quite so!" said Susoitchik. "I must reward her for to-day's
work. Be so kind, Prince, as to hand her the marks of my good-will."

And he handed over the insignia of an order in a morocco case. The
insignia consisted of a necklace of imp's tails to be worn about the
throat, and two toads, one to be worn on the bosom and the other on the
bustle.

LYOFF TOLSTOY, SENIOR.

SERGEI NIKOLAYEVITCH TOLSTOY

I CAN remember my Uncle Seryozha (Sergei) from my earliest childhood. He
lived at Pirogovo, twenty miles from Yasnaya, and visited us often.

As a young man he was very handsome. He had the same features as my
father, but he was slenderer and more aristocratic-looking. He had the
same oval face, the same nose, the same intelligent gray eyes, and the
same thick, overhanging eyebrows. The only difference between his face
and my father's was defined by the fact that in those distant days,
when my father cared for his personal appearance, he was always worrying
about his ugliness, while Uncle Seryozha was considered, and really was,
a very handsome man.

This is what my father says about Uncle Seryozha in his fragmentary
reminiscences:

"I and Nitenka [11] were chums, Nikolenka I revered, but Seryozha I
admired enthusiastically and imitated; I loved him and wished to be he.

"I admired his handsome exterior, his singing,--he was always a
singer,--his drawing, his gaiety, and above all, however strange a thing
it may seem to say, the directness of his egoism. [12]

"I always remembered myself, was aware of myself, always divined rightly
or wrongly what others thought about me and felt toward me; and this
spoiled the joy of life for me. This was probably the reason why I
particularly delighted in the opposite of this in other people; namely,
directness of egoism. That is what I especially loved in Seryozha,
though the word '