r mode of life that
Messalina was, by comparison, a blameless child: which was why my mother
had requested her name never to be mentioned. As a matter of fact,
not one-tenth part of the most cruel of all gossip--the gossip of
country-houses--is worthy of credence; and although, when I first made
Madame's acquaintance, she had living with her in the house a clerk
named Mitusha, who had been promoted from a serf, and who, curled,
pomaded, and dressed in a frockcoat of Circassian pattern, always stood
behind his mistress's chair at luncheon, while from time to time she
invited her guests to admire his handsome eyes and mouth, there was
nothing for gossip to take hold of. I believe, too, that since the
time--ten years earlier--when she had recalled her dutiful son Peter
from the service, she had wholly changed her mode of living. It seems
her property had never been a large one--merely a hundred souls or
so--[This refers, of course, to the days of serfdom.]and that during her
previous life of gaiety she had spent a great deal. Consequently,
when, some ten years ago, those portions of the property which had been
mortgaged and re-mortgaged had been foreclosed upon and compulsorily
sold by auction, she had come to the conclusion that all these
unpleasant details of distress upon and valuation of her property had
been due not so much to failure to pay the interest as to the fact that
she was a woman: wherefore she had written to her son (then serving with
his regiment) to come and save his mother from her embarrassments, and
he, like a dutiful son--conceiving that his first duty was to comfort
his mother in her old age--had straightway resigned his commission (for
all that he had been doing well in his profession, and was hoping soon
to become independent), and had come to join her in the country.

Despite his plain face, uncouth demeanour, and fault of stuttering,
Peter was a man of unswerving principles and of the most extraordinary
good sense. Somehow--by small borrowings, sundry strokes of business,
petitions for grace, and promises to repay--he contrived to carry on the
property, and, making himself overseer, donned his father's greatcoat
(still preserved in a drawer), dispensed with horses and carriages,
discouraged guests from calling at Mitishtchi, fashioned his own
sleighs, increased his arable land and curtailed that of the serfs,
felled his own timber, sold his produce in person, and saw to matters
generally. Indeed,