Prascovia? What are YOU doing here?"

"And how are YOU, Grandmother?" replied Polina, as she
approached the old lady. "Were you long on the journey?".

"The most sensible question that I have yet been asked! Well,
you shall hear for yourself how it all happened. I lay and lay,
and was doctored and doctored,; until at last I drove the
physicians from me, and called in an apothecary from Nicolai who
had cured an old woman of a malady similar to my own--cured her
merely with a little hayseed. Well, he did me a great deal of
good, for on the third day I broke into a sweat, and was able to
leave my bed. Then my German doctors held another consultation,
put on their spectacles, and told me that if I would go abroad,
and take a course of the waters, the indisposition would finally
pass away. 'Why should it not?' I thought to myself. So I had
got things ready, and on the following day, a Friday, set out for
here. I occupied a special compartment in the train, and where
ever I had to change I found at the station bearers who were
ready to carry me for a few coppers. You have nice quarters
here," she went on as she glanced around the room. " But where
on earth did you get the money for them, my good sir? I thought
that everything of yours had been mortgaged? This Frenchman
alone must be your creditor for a good deal. Oh, I know all
about it, all about it."

"I-I am surprised at you, my dearest mother," said the General
in some confusion. "I-I am greatly surprised. But I do not
need any extraneous control of my finances. Moreover, my
expenses do not exceed my income, and we--"