'In Yaroslav?'

'Yes--I escorted the princess there.... She is living now at Yaroslav.'

'But you have trustworthy information?'

'Trustworthy ... I have it at first-hand!--I made the acquaintance of her
family in Kazan. But, my dear boy ... this news seems to be upsetting you?
Why, I recollect you didn't care for Clara at one time? You were wrong,
though! She was a marvellous girl--only what a temper! I was terribly
broken-hearted about her!'

Aratov did not utter a word, he dropped into a chair, and after a brief
pause, asked Kupfer to tell him ... he stammered.

'What?' inquired Kupfer.

'Oh ... everything,' Aratov answered brokenly, 'all about her family ...
and the rest of it. Everything you know!'

'Why, does it interest you? By all means!' And Kupfer, whose face showed no
traces of his having been so terribly broken-hearted about Clara, began his
story.

From his account Aratov learnt that Clara Militch's real name was Katerina
Milovidov; that her father, now dead, had held the post of drawing-master
in a school in Kazan, had painted bad portraits and holy pictures of the
regulation type; that he had besides had the character of being a drunkard
and a domestic tyrant; that he had left behind him, first a widow, of a