a corner and began to sew. The soup was brought
on the table. Basilia, not seeing her husband coming, sent the maid a
second time to call him.

"Tell the master that his inspection can wait; the soup is cooling.
Thank God! the drills need not be lost; there will be time enough yet to
use his voice at his leisure."

The captain soon appeared with his one-eyed officer.

"What's this, my dear," said Basilia; "the table has been served some
time, and no one could make you come."

"You see, Basilia, I was busy with the service, instructing my good
soldiers."

"Come, come, Ivan Mironoff, that's boasting. The service does not suit
them, and as for you, you know nothing about it. You should have stayed
at home and prayed God, that suits you much better. My dear guests, to
table."

We took our places for dinner. Basilia was not silent a moment; she
overwhelmed me with questions: Who were my parents? Were they living?
Where did they reside? What was their fortune? When she learned that my
father owned three hundred serfs, she exclaimed:

"You see there are some rich people in the world--and we, my dear sir,
in point of souls, we possess only the maid Polacca. Yet, thank God, we
live, somehow or other. We have but one care, that is Marie, a girl that
must be married off. And what fortune has she? The price of two baths
per annum. If only she could find a worthy husband. If not, there she
is, eternally a maid."

I glanced at Marie; she blushed, tears were dropping into her soup. I
pitied her, and hastened to change the conversation. "I have heard that
the Bashkirs intend to attack your fortress?"

"Who said so," replied Ivan Mironoff.

"I heard it at Orenbourg."

"All nonsense," said Ivan, "we have not heard the least word about it;
the Bashkirs are an intimidated people; and the Kirghis have also had
some good lessons. They dare not attack us, and if they should even
dream of it, I would give them so great a fright that they would not
move again for ten years."

"Do you not fear," I continued, addressing Basilia, "to stay in a
fortress exposed to these dangers?"

"A matter of habit, my dear," she replied, "twenty years ago, when we
were transferred here from the regiment, you could not believe how I
feared the pagans. If I chanced to see their fur caps, if I heard their
shouts, believe me, my heart was ready to faint; but now I am so used
to this life, that if told that the brigands were prowling around us, I
wou