[Footnote B: An old measure of land, variously estimated at from two
to six acres.]

The richest and most influential of all the Lavretskys was Fedor
Ivanovich's paternal great-grandfather Andrei, a man who was harsh,
insolent, shrewd, and crafty. Even up to the present day men have
never ceased to talk about his despotic manners, his furious temper,
his senseless prodigality, and his insatiable avarice. He was very
tall and stout, his complexion was swarthy, and he wore no beard. He
lisped, and he generally seemed half asleep. But the more quietly he
spoke, the more did all around him tremble. He had found a wife not
unlike himself. She had a round face, a yellow complexion, prominent
eyes, and the nose of a hawk. A gypsy by descent, passionate and
vindictive in temper, she refused to yield in any thing to her
husband, who all but brought her to her grave, and whom, although she
had been eternally squabbling with him, she could net bear long to
survive.

Andrei's son, Peter, our Fedor's grandfather, did not take after his
father. He was a simple country gentleman; rather odd, noisy in voice
and slow in action, rough but not malicious, hospitable, and devoted
to coursing. He was more than thirty years old when he inherited from
his father two thousand souls,[A] all in excellent condition; but he
soon began to squander his property, a part of which he disposed of by
sale, and he spoilt his household. His large, warm, and dirty rooms
were full of people of small degree, known and unknown, who swarmed in
from all sides like cockroaches. All these visitors gorged themselves
with whatever came in their way, drank their fill to intoxication, and
carried off what they could, extolling and glorifying their affable