was a handsome, well-made fellow, and reckoned almost the most dashing
beau at evening parties of the middling sort, which were those he
frequented for the most part; he had not gained a footing in the best
society. From his youth he had been absorbed by two ideals: to get
into the Imperial adjutants, and to make a good marriage; the first
ideal he soon discarded, but he clung all the more closely to the
second, and it was with that object that he went every winter to
Moscow. Nikolai Artemyevitch spoke French fairly, and passed for being
a philosopher, because he was not a rake. Even while he was no more
than an ensign, he was given to discussing, persistently, such
questions as whether it is possible for a man to visit the whole of
the globe in the course of his whole lifetime, whether it is possible
for a man to know what is happening at the bottom of the sea; and he
always maintained the view that these things were impossible.

Nikolai Artemyevitch was twenty-five years old when he 'hooked' Anna
Vassilyevna; he retired from the service and went into the country to
manage the property. He was soon tired of country life, and as the
peasants' labour was all commuted for rent he could easily leave the
estate; he settled in Moscow in his wife's house. In his youth he had
played no games of any kind, but now he developed a passion for loto,
and, when loto was prohibited, for whist. At home he was bored; he
formed a connection with a widow of German extraction, and spent
almost all his time with her. In the year 1853 he had not moved to
Kuntsovo; he stopped at Moscow, ostensibly to take advantage of the
mineral waters; in reality, he did not want to part from his widow.
He did not, however, have much conversation with her, but argued more
than ever as to whether one can foretell the weather and such
questions. Some one had once called him a _frondeur_; he was greatly
delighted with that name. 'Yes,' he thought, letting the corners of