ith half-bantering gravity, to busy himself
with nonsense and assume the appearance of regarding everything serious
as trivial; he danced exquisitely, he dressed in English style. In a
short time he became renowned as one of the most agreeable and adroit
young men in Petersburg. Panshin was, in reality, very adroit,--no less
so than his father: but he was, also, very gifted. He could do
everything: he sang prettily, he drew dashingly, he wrote verses, he
acted very far from badly on the stage. He had only just passed his
twenty-eighth birthday, but he was already Junior Gentleman of the
Emperor's bedchamber, and had a very tolerable rank. Panshin firmly
believed in himself, in his brains, in his penetration; he advanced
boldly and cheerfully, at full swing; his life flowed along as on oil. He
was accustomed to please everybody, old and young, and imagined that he
was a judge of people, especially of women: he did know well their
everyday weaknesses. As a man not a stranger to art, he felt within him
both fervour, and some enthusiasm, and rapture, and in consequence of
this he permitted himself various deviations from the rules: he caroused,
he picked up acquaintance with persons who did not belong to society,
and, in general, maintained a frank and simple demeanour; but in soul he
was cold and cunning, and in the midst of the wildest carouse his clever
little brown eye was always on guard, and watching; this bold, this free
young man could never forget himself and get completely carried away. To
his honour it must be said, that he never bragged of his conquests. He
had hit upon Marya Dmitrievna's house immediately on his arrival in
O * * *, and had promptly made himself entirely at home there. Marya
Dmitrievna fairly adored him.

Panshin amiably saluted all who were in the room, shook hands with Marya
Dmitrievna and Lizaveta Mikhailovna, lightly tapped Gedeonovsky on the
shoulder, and whirling round on his heels, caught Lyenotchka by the head,
and kissed her on the brow.

"And you are not afraid to ride such a vicious horse?"--Marya
Dmitrievna asked him.

"Good gracious! it is a very peaceable beast; but I'll tell you what I am
afraid of: I'm afraid to play preference with Sergyei Petrovitch; last
night, at the Byelenitzyns', he won my last farthing."

Gedeonovsky laughed a shrill and servile laugh: he fawned on the
brilliant young official from Petersburg, the pet of the governor. In his
conversations with Marya Dm