a bear. I remember the tall staircase with a striped carpet on it,
and the young official, with shiny buttons, who mutely motioned me
to the door with both hands, and ran to announce me. I went into a
hall luxuriously but frigidly and tastelessly furnished, and the
high, narrow mirrors in the spaces between the walls, and the bright
yellow window curtains, struck the eye particularly unpleasantly.
One could see that the governors were changed, but the furniture
remained the same. Again the young official motioned me with both
hands to the door, and I went up to a big green table at which a
military general, with the Order of Vladimir on his breast, was
standing.

"Mr. Poloznev, I have asked you to come," he began, holding a letter
in his hand, and opening his mouth like a round "o," "I have asked
you to come here to inform you of this. Your highly respected father
has appealed by letter and by word of mouth to the Marshal of the
Nobility begging him to summon you, and to lay before you the
inconsistency of your behaviour with the rank of the nobility to
which you have the honour to belong. His Excellency Alexandr
Pavlovitch, justly supposing that your conduct might serve as a bad
example, and considering that mere persuasion on his part would not
be sufficient, but that official intervention in earnest was
essential, presents me here in this letter with his views in regard
to you, which I share."

He said this, quietly, respectfully, standing erect, as though I
were his superior officer and looking at me with no trace of severity.
His face looked worn and wizened, and was all wrinkles; there were
bags under his eyes; his hair was dyed; and it was impossible to
tell from his appearance how old he was--forty or sixty.