haps to attain
complete happiness ... perhaps love. The Princess K---- is dead,
forgotten the day of her death. The Kirsanovs, father and son, live at
Maryino; their fortunes are beginning to mend. Arkady has become
zealous in the management of the estate, and the 'farm' now yields a
fairly good income. Nikolai Petrovitch has been made one of the
mediators appointed to carry out the emancipation reforms, and works
with all his energies; he is for ever driving about over his district;
delivers long speeches (he maintains the opinion that the peasants
ought to be 'brought to comprehend things,' that is to say, they ought
to be reduced to a state of quiescence by the constant repetition of
the same words); and yet, to tell the truth, he does not give complete
satisfaction either to the refined gentry, who talk with _chic_, or
depression of the _emancipation_ (pronouncing it as though it were
French), nor of the uncultivated gentry, who unceremoniously curse 'the
damned _'mancipation_.' He is too soft-hearted for both sets. Katerina
Sergyevna has a son, little Nikolai, while Mitya runs about merrily and
talks fluently. Fenitchka, Fedosya Nikolaevna, after her husband and
Mitya, adores no one so much as her daughter-in-law, and when the
latter is at the piano, she would gladly spend the whole day at her
side.

A passing word of Piotr. He has grown perfectly rigid with stupidity
and dignity, but he too is married, and received a respectable dowry
with his bride, the daughter of a market-gardener of the town, who had
refused two excellent suitors, only because they had no watch; while
Piotr had not only a watch--he had a pair of kid shoes.

In the Bruhl Terrace in Dresden, between two and four o'clock--the most
fashionable time for walking--you may meet a man about fifty, quite
grey, and looking as though he suffered from gout, but still handsome,
elegantly dressed, and with that special stamp, which is only gained by
moving a long time in the higher strata of society. That is Pavel
Petrovitch. From Moscow he went abroad for the sake of his health, and
has settled for good at Dresden, where he associates most with English
and Russian visitors. With English people he behaves simply, almost
modestly, but with dignity; they find him rather a bore, but respect
him for being, as they say, _'a perfect gentleman.'_ With Russians he
is more free and easy, gives vent to his spleen, and makes fun of
himself and them, but that is done