t,
to-morrow it was seen in the lieutenant's coach-house, and a week later
the major's servant was again greasing its wheels. The long hedges
separating the houses were suddenly covered with soldiers' caps exposed
to the sun, grey frieze cloaks hung in the doorways, and moustaches
harsh and bristling as clothes brushes were to be met with in all the
streets. These moustaches showed themselves everywhere, but above all
at the market, over the shoulders of the women of the place who flocked
there from all sides to make their purchases. The officers lent great
animation to society at B--.

Society consisted up till then of the judge who was living with a
deacon's wife, and of the chief of police, a very sensible man, but one
who slept all day long from dinner till evening, and from evening till
dinner-time.

This general liveliness was still further increased when the town of
B---- became the residence of the general commanding the brigade to
which the regiment belonged. Many gentlemen of the neighbourhood, whose
very existence no one had even suspected, began to come into the town
with the intention of calling on the officers, or, perhaps, of playing
bank, a game concerning which they had up till then only a very confused
notion, occupied as they were with their crops and the commissions
of their wives and their hare-hunting. I am very sorry that I cannot
recollect for what reason the general made up his mind one fine day to
give a grand dinner. The preparations were overwhelming. The clatter of
knives in the kitchen was heard as far as the town gates. The whole of
the market was laid under contributions, so much so that the judge and
the deacon's wife found themselves obliged that day to be satisfied with
hasty puddings and cakes of flour. The little courtyard of the house
occupied by the general was crowded with vehicles. The company only
consisted of men, officers and gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

Amongst these latter was above all conspicuous Pythagoras Pythagoravitch
Tchertokoutski, one of the leading aristocrats of the district of B--,
the most fiery orator at the nobiliary elections and the owner of a
very elegant turn-out. He had served in a cavalry regiment and had even
passed for one of its most accomplished officers, having constantly
shown himself at all the balls and parties wherever his regiment was
quartered. Information respecting him may be asked of all the young
ladies in the districts of Tamboff a