opportunity he was exercised in acquiring after his parent's example
firmness of will, and every evening he inscribed in a special book an
account of the day and his impressions; and Ivan Petrovitch on his side
wrote him instructions in French in which he called him mon fils, and
addressed him as vous. In Russian Fedya called his father thou, but did
not dare to sit down in his presence. The "system" dazed the boy,
confused and cramped his intellect, but his health on the other hand was
benefited by the new manner of his life; at first he fell into a fever
but soon recovered and began to grow stout and strong. His father was
proud of him and called him in his strange jargon "a child of nature, my
creation." When Fedya had reached his sixteenth year, Ivan Petrovitch
thought it his duty in good time to instil into him a contempt for the
female sex; and the young Spartan, with timidity in his heart and the
first down on his lip, full of sap and strength and young blood, already
tried to seem indifferent, cold, and rude.

Meanwhile time was passing. Ivan Petrovitch spent the great part of the
year in Lavriky (that was the name of the principal estate inherited
from his ancestors). But in the winter he used to go to Moscow alone;
there he stayed at a tavern, diligently visited the club, made speeches
and developed his plans in drawing-rooms, and in his behaviour was more
than ever Anglomaniac, grumbling and political. But the year 1825 came
and brought much sorrow. Intimate friends and acquaintances of Ivan
Petrovitch underwent painful experiences. Ivan Petrovitch made haste to
withdraw into the country and shut himself up in his house. Another year
passed by, and suddenly Ivan Petrovitch grew feeble, and ailing; his
health began to break up. He, the free-thinker, began to go to church
and have prayers put up for him; he, the European, began to sit in
steam-baths, to dine at two o'clock, to go to bed at nine, and to doze
off to the sound of the chatter of the old steward; he, the man of!