empty countenance, and in the depths of
the box an elderly man was visible, wearing an ample coat and a tall
neckcloth, with an expression of feeble stateliness and a certain
obsequious suspicion in his little eyes, with dyed moustache and
side-whiskers, an insignificant, huge forehead, and furrowed cheeks,--a
retired General, by all the signs. Lavretzky could not take his eyes
from the young girl who had startled him; all at once, the door of the
box opened, and Mikhalevitch entered. The appearance of that man, almost
his sole acquaintance in all Moscow,--his appearance in the company of
the only young girl who had engrossed his whole attention, seemed to
Lavretzky strange and significant. As he continued to gaze at the box,
he noticed that all the persons in it treated Mikhalevitch like an old
friend. The performance on the stage ceased to interest Lavretzky;
Motchaloff himself, although that evening he was "in high feather," did
not produce upon him the customary impression. In one very pathetic
passage, Lavretzky involuntarily glanced at his beauty: she was bending
her whole body forward, her cheeks were aflame; under the influence of
his persistent gaze, her eyes, which were riveted on the stage, turned
slowly, and rested upon him.... All night long, those eyes flitted before
his vision. At last, the artificially erected dam had given way: he
trembled and burned, and on the following day he betook himself to
Mikhalevitch. From him he learned, that the beauty's name was Varvara
Pavlovna Korobyn; that the old man and woman who had sat with her in
the box were her father and mother, and that he himself, Mikhalevitch,
had made their acquaintance a year previously, during his stay in the
suburbs of Moscow, "on contract service" (as tutor) with Count N. The
enthusiast expressed himself in the most laudatory manner concerning
Varvara Pavlovna--"My dear fellow," he exclaimed, with the impetuous
harmony in his voice which was peculiar to him,--"that young girl is an
amazing, a talented being, an artist in the genuine sense of the word,
and extremely amiable to boot."--Perceiving from Lavretzky's question
what an impression Varvara Pavlovna had produced upon him, he himself
proposed to introduce him to her, adding that he was quite at home in
their house; that the General was not at all a proud man, and the mother
was so stupid that she all but sucked a rag. Lavretzky blushed, muttered
something unintelligible, and fled. For