same day she went away to her own little property, and in a week General
Korobyin was there, and with a pleasant melancholy in his looks and
movements he took the superintendence of the whole property into his
hands.

In the month of September, Varvara Pavlovna carried her husband off to
Petersburg. She passed two winters in Petersburg (for the summer she
went to stay at Tsarskoe Selo), in a splendid, light, artistically-
furnished flat; they made many acquaintances among the middle and even
higher ranks of society; went out and entertained a great deal, and gave
the most charming dances and musical evenings. Varvara Pavlovna
attracted guests as a fire attracts moths. Fedor Ivanitch did not
altogether like such a frivolous life. His wife advised him to take some
office under government; but from old association with his father, and
also through his own ideas, he was unwilling to enter government
service, still he remained in Petersburg for Varvara Pavlovna's
pleasure. He soon discovered, however, that no one hindered him from
being alone; that it was not for nothing that he had the quietest and
most comfortable study in all Petersburg; that his tender wife was even
ready to aid him to! be alone; and from that time forth all went well.
He again applied himself to his own, as he considered, unfinished
education; he began again to read, and even began to learn English. It
was a strange sight to see his powerful, broad-shouldered figure for
ever bent over his writing table, his full-bearded ruddy face half
buried in the pages of a dictionary or note-book. Every morning he set
to work, then had a capital dinner (Varvara Pavlovna was unrivaled as a
housekeeper), and in the evenings he entered an enchanted world of light
and perfume, peopled by gay young faces, and the centre of this world
was also the careful housekeeper, his wife. She rejoiced his heart by
the birth of a son, but the poor child did not live long; it died in the