letters, glanced over them, beginning at the end, and then threw them on the table, and left the task of answering them to his wife. He took some pleasure in seeing his sons again when they came home on leave, and he sent them back at the expiration of their furloughs much better provided with money than with sentimental blessings. They, on their part, returned without regret, the one to the general whose aide-de-camp he was, the second to his ship, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth to their offices, and the others to their schools. As for his daughters, he did not understand how they could want anything but ribbons and dancing-lessons in the first place, or dowries and trousseaux in the next.

The district was unfortunate in its marshals; in less than two years it lost three of them. Melekitchentzoff died of indigestion; Count Nulin, who followed him, of a fall from his horse; and Kostlyakin, the third one, of the measles, though some people said that it was the cholera. At all events, Tchitchikoff was destined to arrive at the goal of his desires. He was called upon to discharge the functions of the marshalate, pending the next elections, and was regarded as a worthy representative of the local nobility, except by certain country squires, who were impatient of all superiority, and who, like Prince Tchigirin, their leader, had never been known to be satisfied with anyone.

An interim appointment was all that our hero wanted; some months later, he was confirmed in his post for three years, and he resigned himself to his duties. We will not designate those who were the most assiduous at his table and his entertainments —they can be divined. The malcontents? Of course, with Tchigirin always at their head.

The millionaire Melekitchentzoff, in dying, had appointed Tchitchikoff to be one of his executors and co- guardian of his two minor sons. All this weighed heavily in his favour, and was of great advantage to him, thanks to the manner in which he discharged his duties. There was very little of the citizen about him, and, on the other hand, much of the self-made grand seigneur —the provincial grand seigneur of the antique pattern.

Thus, despite success, our hero, having a heart far above his fortunes, was not in the least satisfied. With his hair of alabaster whiteness, his calm and upright bearing, his florid cheeks, his aristocratically fine and transparent nose, his magnetic glance, the noble and generous manner in which he did the honours of his house, his gala-days, and his great festivals, he thought that the nobility of the country did not render him justice in proportion to his merits; and indeed he was of opinion that, at the elections which took place eleven months after his exaltation, he ought to have been elected marshal of the province, instead of being confirmed as marshal of his district for the succeeding three years. This well-deserved promotion would have had the effect, not only of taking him in triumph to the capital of the province, but would have opened to him the doors of the palace of the Czars at Petersburg, and possibly have attached to his marshal’s uniform the golden key of court chamberlain, which renders the offices of master and grand master of ceremonies accessible.

However, Tchitchikoff kept his thoughts to himself, and, too proud to sulk like a fool, he retreated into himself like a sage. But his eyes constantly turned to the walls, the floors, and the ceilings of the principal rooms of his house, and he thought them all very bare, very mean, and very poor, compared to the marvels which he had seen in the Kremlin at Moscow, and in the great Winter Palace of the new capital.

As he had so many great qualities, our hero will surely pardon us for not concealing anything. He had a lofty soul, and a quick, just, and penetrating mind; but his heart, which was often so strong, was not exempt from momentary weaknesses. He feared all contact with foreigners, on account, in the first place, of their habit of immediately judging a country which baffles their research; in the second place of their detestable love of novelties, styled progress; and in the third place, of their stupid principles in favour of the equality of all citizens before the law.

The very word citizen, as applied to plebeians, to peasants, and even to the merchant and artisan classes, seemed to him a revolting absurdity. The law, in his opinion, was a machine set up and worked by noblemen, and which performed its functions for the benefit of noblemen, who had at their head the Czar, who,