r not receive him."

"May I ask why? and also why you walk about on tiptoe and always seem as
if you were going to whisper a secret in my ear whenever you come near
me?"

"I am vile, vile; I know it!" cried Lebedeff, beating his breast with a
contrite air. "But will not the general be too hospitable for you?"

"Too hospitable?"

"Yes. First, he proposes to come and live in my house. Well and good;
but he sticks at nothing; he immediately makes himself one of the
family. We have talked over our respective relations several times, and
discovered that we are connected by marriage. It seems also that you are
a sort of nephew on his mother's side; he was explaining it to me again
only yesterday. If you are his nephew, it follows that I must also be a
relation of yours, most excellent prince. Never mind about that, it is
only a foible; but just now he assured me that all his life, from the
day he was made an ensign to the 11th of last June, he has entertained
at least two hundred guests at his table every day. Finally, he went so
far as to say that they never rose from the table; they dined, supped,
and had tea, for fifteen hours at a stretch. This went on for thirty
years without a break; there was barely time to change the table-cloth;
directly one person left, another took his place. On feast-days he
entertained as many as three hundred guests, and they numbered seven
hundred on the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Russian
Empire. It amounts to a passion with him; it makes one uneasy to hear of
it. It is terrible to have to entertain people who do things on such a
scale. That is why I wonder whether such a man is not too hospitable for
you and me."

"But you seem to be on the best of terms with him?"

"Quite fraternal--I look upon it as a joke. Let us be brothers-in-law,
it is all the same to me,--rather an honour than not. But in spite of
the two hundred guests and the thousandth anniversary of the Russian
Empire, I can see that he is a very remarkable man. I am quite sincere.
You said just now that I always looked as if I was going to tell you a
secret; you are right. I have a secret to tell you: a certain person has
just let me know that she is very anxious for a secret interview with
you."

"Why should it be secret? Not at all; I will call on her myself
tomorrow."

"No, oh no!" cried Lebedeff, waving his arms; "if she is afraid, it is
not for the reason you think. By the way, do you know that t