cted with some bodily defect which
one was anxious to conceal. By the time we had refreshed ourselves and
rambled back, searching for early mushrooms through the forest or the
great plantation of birches set out by the count's own hands a quarter
of a century before, and grown now to stout and serviceable giants, the
twelve o'clock breakfast was ready under the trees. At this informal
meal every one sat where he pleased, and helped himself. At dinner, on
the contrary, my place was always at the count's left hand. We sat on
whatever offered itself. Sometimes I had a wooden chair, sometimes a bit
of the long bench like a plasterer's horse. Once, when some one rose
suddenly from the other end of this, I tumbled over on the count and
narrowly escaped wrecking his dinner.

At no meal did the count ever eat a mouthful of meat, despite urgent
persuasion. Boiled buckwheat groats, salted cucumbers, black bread, eggs
with spinach, tea and coffee, sour _kvas_ (beer made from black bread),
and cabbage soup formed the staple of his diet, even when ill, and when
most people would have avoided the cucumbers and _kvas_, at least.

The family generally met as a whole for the first time at breakfast. The
count had been busy at work in the fields, in writing or reading in his
study; the boys with their tutor; the countess copying her husband's
manuscript and ordering the household. After breakfast every one did
what he pleased until dinner. There was riding, driving,--anything that
the heat permitted. A second bath, late in the afternoon, was indulged
in when it was very hot. The afternoon bathing party generally drove
down in a _lineika_, a sort of long jaunting-car with a central bench,
not too wide, on which the passengers sit back to back, their feet
resting on a narrow footboard which curves over the wheels as a shield.
This _lineika_ had also cross-seats at each end, and with judicious
packing could be made to hold sixteen persons. As it was upholstered in
leather and had no springs, there was some art in keeping one's seat
when the three horses were going at full speed over the uneven forest
road.

After breakfast I sometimes sat under the trees with the countess, and
helped her sew on baby Ivan's clothes, for the pleasure of her
conversation. Nothing could be more fascinating. This beautiful woman
has not rusted during her long residence in the country. There are few
better informed women than she, few better women of business,