accorded
privileges of comradeship, must remain a stranger to the inner
significance of the prevalent red flag. Whereupon Irina, breathing
freely, entered, for a few weeks, into the Kingdom.

The brief chapter of Ivan's life in the student quarter proceeded
merrily to its dramatic close; and, until that close, Ivan remained
utterly oblivious of his or the others' danger.

It was in the first week of the queen of months--the May-time, that
Gregoriev took it into his head to return the oft-repeated, meagre
hospitality of the Akheskaia, by giving a birthday supper to Sergius, on
the night of the 10th. The idea had been born in him through some
mention of the date by Irina, and a casual regret that their recent
contribution towards Burevsky's new chemical outfit must preclude any
hope of even the simplest celebration. Whether her speech had been
ingenuous or not, it did not occur to Ivan to inquire, so pleased was he
at thought of an opportunity of doing something for his new friends at
last. Certainly Irina's finished suggestion accomplished its purpose to
perfection; for, within three days, the affair was under way and the
invitations accepted to a man--and one damsel.

It came as a surprise and an unpleasant one that news of this modest
festivity should have gone abroad; but that the fact should be objected
to, and that by persons unknown as well as known, was as annoying as it
was preposterous. Four days before the affair, Ivan went through a
highly unpleasant scene with old Nicholas Rubinstein, who came to beg
him to give up his acquaintance in the Akheskaia, and remained to
beseech, with an earnestness a trifle startling, that he would, at
least, put off this supper. When finally his defeated friend had gone,
though he had preserved towards him a courtesy that was as admirable as
it had been cutting to old Nicholas, Ivan sat down to his piano feeling
troubled at heart, uneasy in mind. Nor were either of these feelings
lessened when, a quarter of an hour later, old Sosha, after some
unintelligible parley at the door with a being unknown, came limping in
to his master bearing two notes--notes that bore no post-mark, but were
both tightly sealed. The first was clear enough:

"Let Ivan Gregoriev go to the records in his father's office and
verify the day of Sergius Lihnoffs birth.--November 19, 1844. Let
him also see whether the story of the attempted murder of
Guttenrog, at Kiev, in July 1861, is