efer mentally to the popular expounder of a feministic
conception of social state), "as to him, for all his cunning he too
shall speak out some day."

Razumov ceased to think for a moment. Then a sombre-toned reflection
formulated itself in his mind, ironical and bitter. "I have the gift of
inspiring confidence." He heard himself laughing aloud. It was like a
goad to the painted, shiny-eyed harridan on the sofa.

"You may well laugh!" she cried hoarsely. "What else can one do!
Perfect swindlers--and what base swindlers at that! Cheap
Germans--Holstein-Gottorps! Though, indeed, it's hardly safe to say who
and what they are. A family that counts a creature like Catherine the
Great in its ancestry--you understand!"

"You are only upsetting yourself," said Peter Ivanovitch, patiently but
in a firm tone. This admonition had its usual effect on the Egeria. She
dropped her thick, discoloured eyelids and changed her position on the
sofa. All her angular and lifeless movements seemed completely automatic
now that her eyes were closed. Presently she opened them very full.
Peter Ivanovitch drank tea steadily, without haste.

"Well, I declare!" She addressed Razumov directly. "The people who have
seen you on your way here are right. You are very reserved. You haven't
said twenty words altogether since you came in. You let nothing of your
thoughts be seen in your face either."

"I have been listening, Madame," said Razumov, using French for the
first time, hesitatingly, not being certain of his accent. But it seemed
to produce an excellent impression. Madame de S-- looked meaningly into
Peter Ivanovitch's spectacles, as if to convey her conviction of this
young man's merit. She even nodded the least bit in his direction, and
Razumov heard her murmur under her breath the words, "Later on in
the diplomatic service," which could not but refer to the favourable
impression he had made. The fantastic absurdity of it revolted him
because it seemed to outrage his ruined hopes with the vision of a
mock-career. Peter Ivanovitch, impassive as though he were deaf, drank
some more tea. Razumov felt that he must say something.

"Yes," he began deliberately, as if uttering a meditated opinion.
"Clearly. Even in planning a purely military revolution the temper of
the people should be taken into account."

"You have understood me perfectly. The discontent should be
spiritualized. That is what the ordinary heads of revolutionary
committees wi