ny one was at home he replied: "Whom do you
wish to see, sir? The General's son is within."

"And the General himself?" I asked with forced assurance.

"I must report to him your business first. What may it be, sir?" said
the major-domo as he rang a bell. Immediately the gaitered legs of a
footman showed themselves on the staircase above; whereupon I was
seized with such a fit of nervousness that I hastily bid the lacquey say
nothing about my presence to the General, since I would first see his
son. By the time I had reached the top of the long staircase, I seemed
to have grown extremely small (metaphorically, I mean, not actually),
and had very much the same feeling within me as had possessed my soul
when my drozhki drew up to the great portico, namely, a feeling as
though drozhki, horse, and coachman had all of them grown extremely
small too. I found the General's son lying asleep on a sofa, with an
open book before him. His tutor, Monsieur Frost, under whose care he
still pursued his studies at home, had entered behind me with a sort
of boyish tread, and now awoke his pupil. Iwin evinced no particular
pleasure at seeing me, while I also seemed to notice that, while talking
to me, he kept looking at my eyebrows. Although he was perfectly polite,
I conceived that he was "entertaining" me much as the Princess Valakhin
had done, and that he not only felt no particular liking for me, but
even that he considered my acquaintance in no way necessary to one who
possessed his own circle of friends. All this arose out of the idea that
he was regarding my eyebrows. In short, his bearing towards me appeared
to be (as I recognised with an awkward sensation) very much the same as
my own towards Ilinka Grap. I began to feel irritated, and to interpret
every fleeting glance which he cast at Monsieur Frost as a mute inquiry:
"Why has this fellow come to see me?"

After some conversation he remarked that his father and mother were at
home. Would I not like to visit them too?

"First I will go and dress myself," he added as he departed to another
room, notwithstanding that he had seemed to be perfectly well dressed
(in a new frockcoat and white waistcoat) in the present one. A few
minutes later he reappeared in his University uniform, buttoned up to
the chin, and we went downstairs together. The reception rooms through
which we passed were lofty and of great size, and seemed to be richly
furnished with marble and gilt ornaments, chin