"About Clara Militch?"

Kupfer's face expressed compassion.--"Yes, yes, brother, it is true; she
has poisoned herself. It is such a misfortune!"

Aratoff held his peace for a space.--"But hast thou also read it in the
newspaper?" he asked:--"Or perhaps thou hast been to Kazan thyself?"

"I have been to Kazan, in fact; the Princess and I conducted her
thither. She went on the stage there, and had great success. Only I did
not remain there until the catastrophe.... I was in Yaroslavl."

"In Yaroslavl?"

"Yes; I escorted the Princess thither.... She has settled in Yaroslavl
now."

"But hast thou trustworthy information?"

"The most trustworthy sort ... at first hand! I made acquaintance in
Kazan with her family.--But stay, my dear fellow ... this news seems to
agitate thee greatly.--But I remember that Clara did not please thee
that time! Thou wert wrong! She was a splendid girl--only her head! She
had an ungovernable head! I was greatly distressed about her!"

Aratoff did not utter a word, but dropped down on a chair, and after
waiting a while he asked Kupfer to tell him ... he hesitated.

"What?" asked Kupfer.

"Why ... everything," replied Aratoff slowly.--"About her family, for
instance ... and so forth. Everything thou knowest!"

"But does that interest thee?--Certainly!"

Kupfer, from whose face it was impossible to discern that he had
grieved so greatly over Clara, began his tale.

From his words Aratoff learned that Clara Militch's real name had been
Katerina Milovidoff; that her father, now dead, had been an official
teacher of drawing in Kazan, had painted bad portraits and official
images, and moreover had borne the reputation of being a drunkard and a
domestic tyrant ... "and a _cultured_ man into the bargain!".... (Here
Kupfer laughed in a self-satisfied manner, by way of hinting at the pun
he had made);[60]--that he had left at his death, in the first place, a
widow of the merchant class, a thoroughly stupid female, straight out of
one of Ostrovsky's comedies;[61] and in the second place, a daughter
much older than Clara and bearing no resemblance to her--a very clever
girl and "greatly developed, my dear fellow!" That the two--widow and
daughter--lived in easy circumstances, in a decent little house which
had been acquired by the sale of those wretched portraits and holy
pictures; that Clara ... or Katya, whichever you choose to call her, had
astonished every one ever since her childhood b