ve any; and here we are in the middle of the road, in a
nice sort of mess."

"Better to be of a mess than in a mess! I remember making a joke
something like that at the mess in eighteen hundred and forty--forty--I
forget. 'Where is my youth, where is my golden youth?' Who was it said
that, Colia?"

"It was Gogol, in Dead Souls, father," cried Colia, glancing at him in
some alarm.

"'Dead Souls,' yes, of course, dead. When I die, Colia, you must engrave
on my tomb:

"'Here lies a Dead Soul, Shame pursues me.'

"Who said that, Colia?"

"I don't know, father."

"There was no Eropegoff? Eroshka Eropegoff?" he cried, suddenly,
stopping in the road in a frenzy. "No Eropegoff! And my own son to say
it! Eropegoff was in the place of a brother to me for eleven months. I
fought a duel for him. He was married afterwards, and then killed on the
field of battle. The bullet struck the cross on my breast and glanced
off straight into his temple. 'I'll never forget you,' he cried, and
expired. I served my country well and honestly, Colia, but shame, shame
has pursued me! You and Nina will come to my grave, Colia; poor Nina,
I always used to call her Nina in the old days, and how she loved....
Nina, Nina, oh, Nina. What have I ever done to deserve your forgiveness
and long-suffering? Oh, Colia, your mother has an angelic spirit, an
angelic spirit, Colia!"

"I know that, father. Look here, dear old father, come back home! Let's
go back to mother. Look, she ran after us when we came out. What have
you stopped her for, just as though you didn't take in what I said? Why
are you crying, father?"

Poor Colia cried himself, and kissed the old man's hands

"You kiss my hands, MINE?"

"Yes, yes, yours, yours! What is there to surprise anyone in that? Come,
come, you mustn't go on like this, crying in the middle of the road; and
you a general too, a military man! Come, let's go back."

"God bless you, dear boy, for being respectful to a disgraced man. Yes,
to a poor disgraced old fellow, your father. You shall have such a son
yourself; le roi de Rome. Oh, curses on this house!"

"Come, come, what does all this mean?" cried Colia beside himself at
last. "What is it? What has happened to you? Why don't you wish to come
back home? Why have you gone out of your mind, like this?"

"I'll explain it, I'll explain all to you. Don't shout! You shall hear.
Le roi de Rome. Oh, I am sad, I am melancholy!

"'Nurse, where is your tomb?'"