towards the East. Should he one day spread his rule further and further
among the Asiatics and hold the keys of an immense Asiatic empire, well!
future English philosophers may feel thereat a curious fatalistic
satisfaction.

EDWARD GARNETT.

_October_ 1899.




CONTENTS

PAGE
A DESPERATE CHARACTER 1
A STRANGE STORY 40
PUNIN AND BABURIN 77
OLD PORTRAITS 172
THE BRIGADIER 210
PYETUSHKOV 248





A DESPERATE CHARACTER

I