in the Akheskaia. Let Monsieur Gregoriev assure himself
of the character of his associates before proceeding with an
intimacy which the government will be unable long to overlook.

"K. by order of M.--O. G. I."

"M., Official Government Inspector!"--here, at last, was
tangibility.--And yet--the seal? The great, red, double-eagle, so long
familiar to him as dangling from the documents that were forever in the
hands of his father:--where was it?--Besides, the whole thing was
unofficial.--There was neither heading nor arms.--It was a hoax--a
trick--possibly of Laroche, or Ostrovsky, or some other of that formal,
jealous lot. They thought to drive him from his friendships by
malicious, anonymous calumny, then? calumny of a body of
poverty-stricken, half-starved men, working disinterestedly for the sake
of science,--ah! That was a generous thing to do!--As for Irina's
letter, well, she had all a woman's inconsistencies and whims. She had
got some silly notion of pride in her now. By Heaven! He would not even
go to see her. He would merely write a formal little note reminding her
of the date and the hour of his supper--six o'clock on Thursday evening.
And then, though all Russia, though the Czar himself forbade, he should
give Sergius his festival, or go to prison before the day.

* * * * *

Punctually, then, at the hour named, on Thursday, May 10th, there sat
down to the flower-strewn table in Ivan's rooms seven persons--six men
and one woman, they being all but one of the company asked. The chair
between Sergius and Feodor Lemsky was to have been occupied by Yevgeny
Burevsky, the young man who had been the recipient of those "scientific
instruments" for which the whole Quarter was still out of ready money.
It was Sergius himself who explained to their host that, ever since he
had received his outfit, Burevsky had been tirelessly working at his
chemistry. Thus, that afternoon, when his friends called for him on
their way to Ivan, they had found him just nearing the end of a long and
difficult experiment which could not be left. It should, he said, be
finished between half-past six and seven, upon which he would hasten
into his clothes and take a droschky at once for the house of his host.
If anything went wrong, however, he sent his sincere regrets and
apologies to Ivan, begging him to excuse an unpolished workman for his
seeming rudeness, a