From the Caucasus he came again to Moscow, in a Circassian dress, a
dagger in his sash, a high-peaked cap on his head. This costume he
retained to the end, though he was no longer in the army, from which he
had been discharged for outstaying his leave. He stayed with me,
borrowed a little money ... and forthwith began his 'plunges,' his
wanderings, or, as he expressed it, 'his peregrinations from pillar to
post,' then came the sudden disappearances and returns, and the showers
of beautifully written letters addressed to people of every possible
description, from an archbishop down to stable-boys and mid-wives! Then
came calls upon persons known and unknown! And this is worth noticing:
when he made these calls, he was never abject and cringing, he never
worried people by begging, but on the contrary behaved with propriety,
and had positively a cheerful and pleasant air, though the inveterate
smell of spirits accompanied him everywhere, and his Oriental costume
gradually changed into rags. 'Give, and God will reward you, though I
don't deserve it,' he would say, with a bright smile and a candid blush;
'if you don't give, you'll be perfectly right, and I shan't blame you
for it. I shall find food to eat, God will provide! And there are people
poorer than I, and much more deserving of help--plenty, plenty!' Misha
was particularly successful with women: he knew how to appeal to their
sympathy. But don't suppose that he was or fancied himself a
Lovelace....Oh, no! in that way he was very modest. Whether it was that
he had inherited a cool temperament from his parents, or whether indeed
this too is to be set down to his dislike for doing any one harm--as,
according to his notions, relations with a woman meant inevitably doing
a woman harm--I won't undertake to decide; only in all his behaviour
with the fair sex he was extremely delicate. Women felt this, and were
the more ready to sympathise with him and help him, until at last he
revolted them by his drunkenness and debauchery, by the desperateness of