ident that 'Isabella' is a
hasty, ill-thought-out, unfinished composition.--You will remember
my constant reproaches of your excessive carelessness, even when
you were directly under my own eye. And you will not expect me to
think you very serious in your work when, on the very first page of
your overture, I discover two unpardonable blemishes--an empty
fifth (the first error of harmony mentioned in all text-books), and
one of those monstrosities called, I believe, _chords of the ninth
diminished_--a license actually tolerated, I believe, by a certain
preposterous German school. Need I have read further to learn that,
as a composer, you can never achieve a _succes d'estime_, and that
your classical ideals are gone?

"To be brief, my dear Gregoriev, your 'opera'--I give it your own
grandiloquent appellation, is unworthy the signature of a pupil of
mine; and, after a careful reading, I feel that the greatest
service I can do you is to keep the score pigeon-holed here till
you are able to laugh at your wild idea of its possible
performance.

"Accept, my dear pupil, the remembrances of,

"E. ZAREMBA."

Slowly at first, then with more rapidity, Ivan read the letter through.
Even after he had noted the signature, he continued to hold the sheet in
his hands, while his eyes fixed themselves on some distant object. Two,
three, five minutes passed. Then he placed the paper carefully on the
table, dropped into a chair by its side, and seemed to meditate.

After a time, there came a clamor at the door of the living-room; and
Ivan recognized friendly voices. Instantly he glided to the door, turned
the key, drew the bolt, and returned noiselessly to his place just as
Sosha knocked. After a pause, the knock was repeated. Then the door was
tried, shaken, and pulled. In vain. There came no sound from within.
Ivan heard his servitor inform the would-be condolers that his master
had evidently gone out again. There were muffled good-byes and
so--silence.

Twenty minutes later Sosha, dozing in his tiny kitchen, was roused by
his master commanding tea at once, and enjoining him to let no one into
the rooms that night. At the acknowledgment of this command, Ivan
returned to his bedroom, to wait. Ten minutes passed. Then Sosha came,
set down the samovar and a plate of food, p