ows."

Evgenie Pavlovitch remarked here that he had spoken of his intention of
leaving the service long ago. He had, however, always made more or less
of a joke about it, so no one had taken him seriously. For that matter
he joked about everything, and his friends never knew what to believe,
especially if he did not wish them to understand him.

"I have only retired for a time," said he, laughing. "For a few months;
at most for a year."

"But there is no necessity for you to retire at all," complained the
general, "as far as I know."

"I want to go and look after my country estates. You advised me to do
that yourself," was the reply. "And then I wish to go abroad."

After a few more expostulations, the conversation drifted into other
channels, but the prince, who had been an attentive listener, thought
all this excitement about so small a matter very curious. "There must be
more in it than appears," he said to himself.

"I see the 'poor knight' has come on the scene again," said Evgenie
Pavlovitch, stepping to Aglaya's side.

To the amazement of the prince, who overheard the remark, Aglaya looked
haughtily and inquiringly at the questioner, as though she would give
him to know, once for all, that there could be no talk between them
about the 'poor knight,' and that she did not understand his question.

"But not now! It is too late to send to town for a Pushkin now. It is
much too late, I say!" Colia was exclaiming in a loud voice. "I have
told you so at least a hundred times."

"Yes, it is really much too late to send to town now," said Evgenie
Pavlovitch, who had escaped from Aglaya as rapidly as possible. "I am
sure the shops are shut in Petersburg; it is past eight o'clock," he
added, looking at his watch.

"We have done without him so far," interrupted Adelaida in her turn.
"Surely we can wait until to-morrow."

"Besides," said Colia, "it is quite unusual, almost improper, for
people in our position to take any interest in literature. Ask Evgenie
Pavlovitch if I am not right. It is much more fashionable to drive a
waggonette with red wheels."

"You got that from some magazine, Colia," remarked Adelaida.

"He gets most of his conversation in that way," laughed Evgenie
Pavlovitch. "He borrows whole phrases from the reviews. I have long
had the pleasure of knowing both Nicholai Ardalionovitch and his
conversational methods, but this time he was not repeating something he
had read; he was alluding, no do