egular features--invited us
all to spend a sociable evening with him. By "us all", I mean all the
men more or less "comme il faut", of our course, and exclusive of
Grap, Semenoff, Operoff, and commoners of that sort. Woloda smiled
contemptuously when he heard that I was going to a "wine" of first
course men, but I looked to derive great and unusual pleasure from this,
to me, novel method of passing the time. Accordingly, punctually at the
appointed hour of eight I presented myself at the Baron's.

Our host, in an open tunic and white waistcoat, received his guests
in the brilliantly lighted salon and drawing-room of the small mansion
where his parents lived--they having given up their reception rooms to
him for the evening for purposes of this party. In the corridor could
be seen the heads and skirts of inquisitive domestics, while in the
dining-room I caught a glimpse of a dress which I imagined to belong to
the Baroness herself. The guests numbered a score, and were all of
them students except Herr Frost (in attendance upon Iwin) and a tall,
red-faced gentleman who was superintending the feast and who was
introduced to every one as a relative of the Baron's and a former
student of the University of Dorpat. At first, the excessive brilliancy
and formal appointments of the reception-rooms had such a chilling
effect upon this youthful company that every one involuntarily hugged
the walls, except a few bolder spirits and the ex-Dorpat student, who,
with his waistcoat already unbuttoned, seemed to be in every room, and
in every corner of every room, at once, and filled the whole place with
his resonant, agreeable, never-ceasing tenor voice. The remainder of the
guests preferred either to remain silent or to talk in discreet tones of
professors, faculties, examinations, and other serious and interesting
matters. Yet every one, without exception, kept watching the door of
the dining-room, and, while trying to conceal the fact, wearing an
expression which said: "Come! It is time to begin." I too felt that
it was time to begin, and awaited the beginning with pleasurable
impatience.

After footmen had handed round tea among the guests, the Dorpat student
asked Frost in Russian:

"Can you make punch, Frost?"

"Oh ja!" replied Frost with a joyful flourish of his heels, and the
other went on:

"Then do you set about it" (they addressed each other in the second
person singular, as former comrades at Dorpat). Frost accordingly