A House of Gentlefolk

There was an air of decorum and propriety in everything about him, from his prosperous countenance and smoothly brushed hair, to his low-heeled, noiseles

ith deliberation in an arm-chair, and rubbing the very

veta Mihalovn

ya Dmitrievna, “sh

ena Mih

the garden too.

pursing up his mouth. “Hm! . . . yes, indeed, there is a piece of new

evna. “Are you sure you are

d, I saw h

t does not

ovsky, affecting not to have heard Marfa Timofyevna’s last

dwelling on each syllable. “I should have though

other man in Fedor Ivanitch’s position w

you talking! The man’s come back to his home — where would you

madam, I venture to assure you,

u have never been married yourself.” G

sked, after a short pause, “for wh

vna gave him

nly to blame in being too good to his wife. To be sure, he married for love, and no good ever comes of those love-matches,” added the old lady, with a sidelong glance at Marya Dmitri

said Marya Dmitrievna, follo

s the age we live in. One of my friends, a most worthy man, and, I assure you, a man of no mean position, used to say, that nowadays the very hens can’t pick up a grain of co

tle finger held apart from the rest. He pressed his lips to it, and she drew he

really — all right — q

cheerful,” replied Ged

eard where his

s; now, they say, she h

w he can bear it. Every one, of course, has trouble; bu

ovsky

es with artists and musicians, and as the saying is, with strange

na. “On account of our relationship. You know, Ser

ow everything that concerns your

o see us — what

they say, he is intending to

a lifted her e

ovitch, when I think how careful we

” (Sergei Petrovitch drew a blue checked handkerchief out of his pocket and began to unfold it.) “There are such women, no doubt.” (Sergei Petrovitch applied a corner of the handkerc

rl of eleven running into the room, “Vla

Our humble respects to Elena Mihalovna,” he said, and turning aside in

ittle girl. “He was at the gate just now, he to

ung man, riding a beautiful bay horse, was seen