becoming an officer of the Guards?" resumed
the persistent questioner.

"Will you stop your stupidities?" said the Captain's wife to him. "You
see the young man is fatigued by the journey; he has something else to
do besides answering you. Hold your hands better! And you my dear sir,"
continued she, turning to me, "do not be too much afflicted that you are
thrust into our little town; you are not the first, and will not be the
last. Now, there is Alexis Chabrine, who has been transferred to us for
a term of four years for murder. God knows what provocation he had. He
and a lieutenant went outside the city with their swords, and before two
witnesses Alexis killed the lieutenant. Ah! misfortune has no master."

Just then the Corporal entered, a young and handsome Cossack. "Maxim,"
said the Captain's wife, "give this officer a clean lodging."

"I obey, Basilia," replied the Cossack; "shall I lodge him with Ivan
Pologoff?"

"You are doting, Maxim, he has too little space now; besides, he is
my child's godfather; and, moreover, he never forgets that we are his
chiefs. What is your name, my dear sir?"

"Peter Grineff."

"Then conduct Peter Grineff to the quarters of Simeon Kieff. That rascal
let his horse into my vegetable garden. Is all right, Maxim?"

"Thank God, all is quiet, except that Corporal Kourzoff quarreled with
the woman Augustina about a pail of warm water."

"Ignatius," said the Captain's wife to the one-eyed man, "judge between
the two--decide which one is guilty, and punish both. Go, Maxim, God be
with you. Peter Grineff, Maxim will conduct you to your lodgings."

I took my leave; the Corporal led me to a cabin placed on the high bank
near the river's edge, at the end of the fortress. Half of the cabin was
occupied by the family of Simeon Kieff, the other was given up to me.
My half of the cabin was a large apartment divided by a partition.
Saveliitch began at once to install us, whilst I looked out of the
narrow window. Before me stretched the bleak and barren steppe; nearer
rose some cabins; at the threshold of one stood a woman with a bowl in
her hand calling the pigs to feed; no other objects met my sight, save
a few chickens scratching for stray kernels of corn in the street. And
this was the country to which I was condemned to pass my youth! I turned
from the window, seized by bitter sadness, and went to bed without
supper, notwithstanding the supplications of Saveliitch, who with
anguish crie