me; and what a pretty dimple she's got!"

But instead of all this, Yourii said nothing, and Riasantzeff asked:

"Have you been expelled for long?"

"For five years," was Yourii's answer.

At these words Nicolai Yegorovitch, who was pacing up and down the
room, stopped for a moment and then, recollecting himself, he continued
his walk with the regular, precise steps of an old soldier. As yet he
was ignorant of the details of his son's exile, and this unexpected
news came as a shock.

"What the devil does it all mean?" he muttered to himself.

Lialia understood this movement of her father's. She was afraid of
scenes, and tried to change the conversation.

"How foolish of me," she thought, "not to have remembered to tell
Anatole!"

But Riasantzeff did not know the real facts, and, replying to Lialia's
invitation to have some tea, he again began to question Yourii.

"And what do you think of doing now?"

Nicolai Yegorovitch frowned, and said nothing. Yourii at once knew what
his father's silence meant; and before he had reflected upon the
consequences of such an answer he replied, defiantly and with