special
feature of this physiognomy was its death-like pallor, which gave to
the whole man an indescribably emaciated appearance in spite of his hard
look, and at the same time a sort of passionate and suffering expression
which did not harmonize with his impudent, sarcastic smile and
keen, self-satisfied bearing. He wore a large fur--or rather
astrachan--overcoat, which had kept him warm all night, while his
neighbour had been obliged to bear the full severity of a Russian
November night entirely unprepared. His wide sleeveless mantle with a
large cape to it--the sort of cloak one sees upon travellers during the
winter months in Switzerland or North Italy--was by no means adapted to
the long cold journey through Russia, from Eydkuhnen to St. Petersburg.

The wearer of this cloak was a young fellow, also of about twenty-six or
twenty-seven years of age, slightly above the middle height, very fair,
with a thin, pointed and very light coloured beard; his eyes were large
and blue, and had an intent look about them, yet that heavy expression
which some people affirm to be a peculiarity as well as evidence, of an
epileptic subject. His face was decidedly a pleasant one for all that;
refined, but quite colourless, except for the circumstance that at this
moment it was blue with cold. He held a bundle made up of an old faded
silk handkerchief that apparently contained all his travelling wardrobe,
and wore thick shoes and gaiters, his whole appearance being very
un-Russian.

His black-haired neighbour inspected these peculiarities, having nothing
better to do, and at length remarked, with that rude enjoyment of the
discomforts of others which the common classes so often show:

"Cold?"

"Very," said his neighbour, readily, "and this is a thaw, too. Fancy if
it had been a hard frost! I never thought it would be so cold in the old
country. I've grown quite out of the way of it."

"What, been abroad, I suppose?"

"Yes, straight from Switzerland."

"Wheugh! my goodness!" The black-haired young fellow whistled, and then
laughed.

The conversation proceeded. The readiness of the fair-haired young
man in the cloak to answer all his opposite neighbour's questions
was surprising. He seemed to have no suspicion of any impertinence
or inappropriateness in the fact of such questions being put to him.
Replying to them, he made known to the inquirer that he certainly had
been long absent from Russia, more than four years; that he h