d quicker, and with
increasing strangeness. "I--I was afraid of you all, and afraid of
myself. I was most afraid of myself. When I returned to Petersburg, I
promised myself to make a point of seeing our greatest men, and members
of our oldest families--the old families like my own. I am now among
princes like myself, am I not? I wished to know you, and it was
necessary, very, very necessary. I had always heard so much that was
evil said of you all--more evil than good; as to how small and petty
were your interests, how absurd your habits, how shallow your education,
and so on. There is so much written and said about you! I came here
today with anxious curiosity; I wished to see for myself and form my
own convictions as to whether it were true that the whole of this upper
stratum of Russian society is WORTHLESS, has outlived its time, has
existed too long, and is only fit to die--and yet is dying with petty,
spiteful warring against that which is destined to supersede it and take
its place--hindering the Coming Men, and knowing not that itself is in
a dying condition. I did not fully believe in this view even before, for
there never was such a class among us--excepting perhaps at court, by
accident--or by uniform; but now there is not even that, is there? It
has vanished, has it not?"

"No, not a bit of it," said Ivan Petrovitch, with a sarcastic laugh.

"Good Lord, he's off again!" said Princess Bielokonski, impatiently.

"Laissez-le dire! He is trembling all over," said the old man, in a
warning whisper.

The prince certainly was beside himself.

"Well? What have I seen?" he continued. "I have seen men of graceful
simplicity of intellect; I have seen an old man who is not above
speaking kindly and even LISTENING to a boy like myself; I see before
me persons who can understand, who can forgive--kind, good Russian
hearts--hearts almost as kind and cordial as I met abroad. Imagine how
delighted I must have been, and how surprised! Oh, let me express
this feeling! I have so often heard, and I have even believed, that
in society there was nothing but empty forms, and that reality had
vanished; but I now see for myself that this can never be the case HERE,
among us--it may be the order elsewhere, but not in Russia. Surely you
are not all Jesuits and deceivers! I heard Prince N.'s story just now.
Was it not simple-minded, spontaneous humour? Could such words come from
the lips of a man who is dead?--a man whose heart and