feel most compunction about is my poor peasants; I perceive the need of an example for them, but what sort of an example am I for anyone? And what am I to do? I cannot be exacting and strict. How am I to inculcate order in them, when I am so disorderly myself? Take them under your charge, Pavel Ivanovitch. I should have given them their liberty long ago, but that it would have been of no advantage to anyone. I see that it is necessary first of all to bring them to such a state that they shall know how to order their own lives. It is requisite that a man should be stern and just, and live among them, in order to produce an effect on them by his own example and his unwearying activity. I perceive, from my own case, that the Russian man cannot get along without someone to urge him forwards: without that he falls dozing, and decays.”

“It is strange,” said Platonoff, “that a Russian should be capable of thus falling into drowsiness and decay; that, unless you watch the man of the lower classes with all your eyes, he turns out a drunkard and good-for- nothing!”

“That arises from the lack of civilisation,” remarked Tchitchikoff.

“God knows what is the cause of it!” went on Khlobuyoff, “Surely, we are civilised. I have attended lectures at the university, and what have I to show for being at the university? Come, now, what have I learned? They not only did not teach me to live an orderly life, but they even tried their best to teach me the art of spending as much money as possible on every new refinement or comfort, and they made me acquainted with as many matters as possible which require the expenditure of money. Why was I educated in so senseless a way? Yes, and look at my comrades. Two or three of them derived some real advantage from it, and possibly because they would have been sensible in any case; but the rest only endeavoured to learn things which ruin the health and entice money from one’s pocket. Thus, we always select in civilisation the things which are the worst of all; we grasp the surface, but not the substance. No, Pavel Ivanovitch, we do not understand how to live, but for what cause, by Heaven! I cannot say.”

“There must be some cause,” remarked Tchitchikoff.

Poor Khlobuyoff sighed deeply several times, and proceeded as follows: “It sometimes seems to me that the Russian is a lost being. He wants to do everything, and can do nothing. He keeps thinking that he will begin a new life on the morrow, but nothing comes of it. On that very same evening he over- feeds himself, so that he can do nothing but wink, and cannot manage his tongue. He sits and stares at everyone like an owl. Truly, we are all just like that.”

“Yes,” said Tchitchikoff, laughing: “such things do happen.”

“Let us take still another turn in this direction,” said Khlobuyoff. “Let us now inspect the peasants’ fields.”

The views on their way back were the same. Slatternly disorder appeared everywhere. Everything was neglected and abandoned. An angry woman in a dirty gown was beating a poor little girl to death, and swearing by all the devils in every direction. Farther on, two peasant men were observing the wrath of the drunken woman with stoical indifference. One of them was scratching his back while the other was yawning. Yawns were even visible on the buildings, whose roofs were gaping. Platonoff, too, on his side, yawned as he gazed at them. “My future property, these peasants,” thought Tchitchikoff. “Hole on hole, and patch on patch.” And, in fact, on the top of one cabin lay a gate instead of a roof; the decaying walls were propped up with poles, which had been removed from the master’s barns. It was evident that Trishkin’s method of dealing with his coat prevailed in the domestic management. The people here cut off the cuffs and the tails to patch the elbows.³

“Your estate is not in an enviable condition,” remarked Tchitchikoff, as they entered the owner’s house.

There they were struck by the commingling of poverty with glittering trifles, mementoes of past luxury. A figure of Shakspeare sat on the inkstand; on the table there lay a dainty ivory scratchback. The visitors were received by the mistress of the house, dressed tastefully and in the latest fashion, who talked about