dabbler
in the Nihilism of the period, as exposed by Mr. Turgenieff. He could
hardly talk Russian, but had fallen in love with one of the Miss
Epanchins, and his suit met with so much encouragement that he had been
received in the house as the recognized bridegroom-to-be of the young
lady. But like the Frenchman of whom the story is told that he studied
for holy orders, took all the oaths, was ordained priest, and next
morning wrote to his bishop informing him that, as he did not believe
in God and considered it wrong to deceive the people and live upon their
pockets, he begged to surrender the orders conferred upon him the day
before, and to inform his lordship that he was sending this letter to
the public press,--like this Frenchman, the prince played a false game.
It was rumoured that he had purposely waited for the solemn occasion of
a large evening party at the house of his future bride, at which he was
introduced to several eminent persons, in order publicly to make known
his ideas and opinions, and thereby insult the "big-wigs," and to throw
over his bride as offensively as possible; and that, resisting the
servants who were told off to turn him out of the house, he had seized
and thrown down a magnificent china vase. As a characteristic addition
to the above, it was currently reported that the young prince really
loved the lady to whom he was engaged, and had thrown her over out of
purely Nihilistic motives, with the intention of giving himself the
satisfaction of marrying a fallen woman in the face of all the world,
thereby publishing his opinion that there is no distinction between
virtuous and disreputable women, but that all women are alike, free; and
a "fallen" woman, indeed, somewhat superior to a virtuous one.

It was declared that he believed in no classes or anything else,
excepting "the woman question."

All this looked likely enough, and was accepted as fact by most of the
inhabitants of the place, especially as it was borne out, more or less,
by daily occurrences.

Of course much was said that could not be determined absolutely. For
instance, it was reported that the poor girl had so loved her future
husband that she had followed him to the house of the other woman, the
day after she had been thrown over; others said that he had insisted on
her coming, himself, in order to shame and insult her by his taunts and
Nihilistic confessions when she reached the house. However all
these things might be,