seriously with him;
but though he had seen the prince, as I say, he told his family nothing
about the circumstance. In fact, for a month or so after his departure
it was considered not the thing to mention the prince's name in the
Epanchin household. Only Mrs. Epanchin, at the commencement of this
period, had announced that she had been "cruelly mistaken in the
prince!" and a day or two after, she had added, evidently alluding
to him, but not mentioning his name, that it was an unalterable
characteristic of hers to be mistaken in people. Then once more, ten
days later, after some passage of arms with one of her daughters, she
had remarked sententiously. "We have had enough of mistakes. I shall be
more careful in future!" However, it was impossible to avoid remarking
that there was some sense of oppression in the household--something
unspoken, but felt; something strained. All the members of the family
wore frowning looks. The general was unusually busy; his family hardly
ever saw him.

As to the girls, nothing was said openly, at all events; and probably
very little in private. They were proud damsels, and were not always
perfectly confidential even among themselves. But they understood each
other thoroughly at the first word on all occasions; very often at the
first glance, so that there was no need of much talking as a rule.

One fact, at least, would have been perfectly plain to an outsider, had
any such person been on the spot; and that was, that the prince had made
a very considerable impression upon the family, in spite of the fact
that he had but once been inside the house, and then only for a short
time. Of course, if analyzed, this impression might have proved to be
nothing more than a feeling of curiosity; but be it what it might, there
it undoubtedly was.

Little by little, the rumours spread about town became lost in a maze of
uncertainty. It was said that some foolish young prince, name unknown,
had suddenly come into possession of a gigantic fortune, and had married
a French ballet dancer. This was contradicted, and the rumour circulated
that it was a young merchant who had come into the enormous fortune and
married the great ballet dancer, and that at the wedding the drunken
young fool had burned seventy thousand roubles at a candle out of pure
bravado.

However, all these rumours soon died down, to which circumstance certain
facts largely contributed. For instance, the whole of the Rogojin troop
ha