stared in his face like a fool. I suppose he must have thought that I was crazy. Ah, Anna Grigorievna, if you only knew how it troubled me!”

“But this is very strange,” said the charming lady; “what can those dead souls mean? I must admit that I understand nothing whatever about it. This is the second time that I have heard something about dead souls; and although my husband says that Nozdreff lies, there is certainly something in it all.”

“But, Anna Grigorievna, imagine my position when I heard this. ‘And now,’ says Mrs. Korobotchka, ‘I do not know,’ says she, ‘what I am to do. He made me sign my name to some counterfeit document, and he flung a fifteen-rouble banknote at me. I,’ she says, ‘I am an inexperienced, helpless widow. I know nothing.’ Fine doings, indeed! But if you could gain any conception of how completely I was upset!”

“But it can’t be any question of dead souls: something else must be concealed behind.”

“I agree with you,” said the nice lady, somewhat taken with this idea, and conscious of a strong desire to know what could possibly be concealed behind it all. She even slowly said, “And what do you think is concealed in this case? Come, what do you think?”

“But what do you yourself think?”

“What do I think? I confess that I am completely bewildered,” replied the nice lady.

“Still, I should like to know your opinion on the subject.”

However the nice lady found nothing to say. She was capable of experiencing emotion, but she was not capable of forming an accurate theory; and for that reason she required, more than any other, tender friendly advice.

“Well, listen to what these dead souls are,” said the charming lady; and at these words her guest concentrated all her faculties on listening. Her little ears stretched forward of themselves; she partly rose, so that she hardly rested on the sofa; and, although she was rather heavy, she suddenly became thinner, and almost ethereal, like the down which floats in the air.

“The dead souls——” began the charming lady.

“Well, what are they? what are they?” broke in her visitor, in great excitement.

“The dead souls——”

“Ah, speak, for Heaven’s sake!”

“Were simple invented as a blind; but this is the real matter—he wants to carry off the governor’s daughter.”

This conclusion was by no means expected by the visitor, and it was certainly remarkable in every respect. The nice lady, on hearing it, became transfigured on the spot, grew paler, pale as death, and felt actually alarmed.

“O Heavens!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands. “That is something which I should never have suspected!”

“Well, for myself, I guessed what the matter was as soon as you opened your mouth,” replied the charming lady.

“But what are we to think of the way young girls are trained at the Institute after this, Anna Grigorievna? There’s innocence for you!”

“Innocence indeed! I have heard that she says such things as I should never have the courage to utter.”