host. As for their host, when he was out of humor with them, he called
them scamps and parasites; but when deprived of their company, he soon
found himself bored.

[Footnote A: Male serfs.]

The wife of Peter Andreich was a quiet creature whom he had taken from
a neighboring family in acquiescence with his father's choice and
command. Her name was Anna Pavlovna. She never interfered in any
thing, received her guests cordially, and went out into society
herself with pleasure--although "it was death" to her, to use her own
phrase, to have to powder herself. "They put a felt cap on your head,"
she used to say in her old age; "they combed all your hair straight up
on end, they smeared it with grease, they strewed it with flour, they
stuck it full of iron pins; you couldn't wash it away afterwards. But
to pay a visit without powdering was impossible. People would have
taken offence. What a torment it was!" She liked to drive fast, and
was ready to play at cards from morning until evening. When her
husband approached the card-table, she was always in the habit of
covering with her hand the trumpery losses scored up against her; but
she had made over to him, without reserve, all her dowry, all the
money she had. She brought him two children--a son named Ivan, our
Fedor's father, and a daughter, Glafira.[A]

[Footnote A: The accent should be on the second syllable of this
name.]

Ivan was not brought up at home, but in the house of an old and
wealthy maiden aunt, Princess Kubensky. She styled him her heir (if it
had not been for that, his father would not have let him go), dressed