of Mrs. Epanchin's, and have not made a little
error through--well, absence of mind, which is very common to human
beings; or, say--through a too luxuriant fancy?"

"Oh, you are right again," said the fair-haired traveller, "for I
really am _almost_ wrong when I say she and I are related. She is hardly
a relation at all; so little, in fact, that I was not in the least
surprised to have no answer to my letter. I expected as much."

"H'm! you spent your postage for nothing, then. H'm! you are candid,
however--and that is commendable. H'm! Mrs. Epanchin--oh yes! a most
eminent person. I know her. As for Mr. Pavlicheff, who supported you in
Switzerland, I know him too--at least, if it was Nicolai Andreevitch
of that name? A fine fellow he was--and had a property of four thousand
souls in his day."

"Yes, Nicolai Andreevitch--that was his name," and the young fellow
looked earnestly and with curiosity at the all-knowing gentleman with
the red nose.

This sort of character is met with pretty frequently in a certain class.
They are people who know everyone--that is, they know where a man is
employed, what his salary is, whom he knows, whom he married, what money
his wife had, who are his cousins, and second cousins, etc., etc. These
men generally have about a hundred pounds a year to live on, and they
spend their whole time and talents in the amassing of this style of
knowledge, which they reduce--or raise--to the standard of a science.

During the latter part of the conversation the black-haired young man
had become very impatient. He stared out of the window, and fidgeted,
and evidently longed for the end of the journey. He was very absent;
he would appear to listen-and heard nothing; and he would laugh of a
sudden, evidently with no idea of what he was laughing about.

"Excuse me," said the red-nosed man to the young fellow with the bundle,
rather suddenly; "whom have I the honour to be talking to?"

"Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin," replied the latter, with perfect
readiness.

"Prince Muishkin? Lef Nicolaievitch? H'm! I don't know, I'm sure! I may
say I have never heard of such a person," said the clerk, thoughtfully.
"At least, the name, I admit, is historical. Karamsin must mention the
family name, of course, in his history--but as an individual--one never
hears of any Prince Muishkin nowadays."

"Of course not," replied the prince; "there are none, except myself.
I believe I am the last and only one. As to