Nicholas had assured him solemnly that, when "The Boyar" should be
finished, and the libretto, to be provided by Ostrovsky, properly
polished, he would himself arrange for its production during the ensuing
winter season. And while Ivan stood, dazed and silent, wondering if such
a thing could really be, this great-hearted friend of Russia and Russian
art, had seized him by the hand, left a vigorous pound of encouragement
on his shoulder, and was gone--shouting, anxiously, as he perceived the
relative positions of the hands of his watch.

Next morning, before Ivan had risen from his protracted sleep,
Rubinstein's pupils at the Conservatoire were undergoing three hours of
remarkable instruction. Their burly master cursed them roundly when they
failed to point out to him a given number of chords of the ninth and
seventh, augmented or diminished, in a selected fugue of that mad
iconoclast Bach; or to mark two dozen examples of canon and counterpoint
in the first act of the latest opera by the staid pillar of classicism,
Richard Wagner! After which betrayal of his mental state, the master
leaped to his feet, jammed his ancient hat over his eyes, called out
that his classes for the next three days were to take their instruction
from Balakirev, Gregoriev or Laroche; and then, informing them only that
he should return within the week, he rushed out of the building. A
convenient droschky carried him to his apartment, where he gathered
together a bagful of clothes, scribbled Ivan a fictitious explanation of
his journey, and was soon on his way to the station, where, by a
miracle, he caught the Petersburg express.

* * * * *

Two nights later, at half-past one o'clock, Anton the world-famed
returned to his rooms from a supper which had followed one of his rare
Petersburg recitals. He was in excellent humor; for his success,
throughout both sections of the evening, had been precisely to his
taste. Seven times had he been forced to encore, before the enraptured
audience would leave the concert-hall; and at Count Lichtenstein's--the
house of the German ambassador, he had been lionized till even he was
satisfied. Wherefore was he in excellent humor before, entering his
living-room, his eyes fell upon the unexpected figure of his brother,
who stood silently awaiting him. Nor was Anton long in reading the
significance of his visitor's expression, before which his own changed
utterly. His eyes were dull, h