ng. Yet seeing him sitting silent and alone, but perfectly
happy, they had been on the point of exerting themselves to draw him
into one of the groups of talkers around the room. Now that he was in
the midst of a talk they became more than ever anxious and perturbed.

"That he was a splendid man is perfectly true; you are quite right,"
repeated Ivan Petrovitch, but seriously this time. "He was a fine and a
worthy fellow--worthy, one may say, of the highest respect," he added,
more and more seriously at each pause; "and it is agreeable to see, on
your part, such--"

"Wasn't it this same Pavlicheff about whom there was a strange story in
connection with some abbot? I don't remember who the abbot was, but I
remember at one time everybody was talking about it," remarked the old
dignitary.

"Yes--Abbot Gurot, a Jesuit," said Ivan Petrovitch. "Yes, that's the
sort of thing our best men are apt to do. A man of rank, too, and
rich--a man who, if he had continued to serve, might have done anything;
and then to throw up the service and everything else in order to go over
to Roman Catholicism and turn Jesuit--openly, too--almost triumphantly.
By Jove! it was positively a mercy that he died when he did--it was
indeed--everyone said so at the time."

The prince was beside himself.

"Pavlicheff?--Pavlicheff turned Roman Catholic? Impossible!" he cried,
in horror.

"H'm! impossible is rather a strong word," said Ivan Petrovitch. "You
must allow, my dear prince... However, of course you value the memory of
the deceased so very highly; and he certainly was the kindest of men;
to which fact, by the way, I ascribe, more than to anything else, the
success of the abbot in influencing his religious convictions. But you
may ask me, if you please, how much trouble and worry I, personally,
had over that business, and especially with this same Gurot! Would you
believe it," he continued, addressing the dignitary, "they actually
tried to put in a claim under the deceased's will, and I had to resort
to the very strongest measures in order to bring them to their senses?
I assure you they knew their cue, did these gentlemen--wonderful! Thank
goodness all this was in Moscow, and I got the Court, you know, to help
me, and we soon brought them to their senses.

"You wouldn't believe how you have pained and astonished me," cried the
prince.

"Very sorry; but in point of fact, you know, it was all nonsense and
would have ended in smoke, as usual