d by himself under the direction, first of his mother,
recently of his tutor, Monsieur Ludmillo, the son of a Polish exile,
educated in France, and only permitted to re-enter Russia upon the death
of his father, in 1847. This man, a gentle, melancholy idealist, like so
many of his race, had early taken a sincere liking for his young pupil,
nor found, as the years passed, anything special to complain of in
Ivan's performance of his tasks or his obedience during their many hours
together. Of all, in short, who had to do with the young Prince, one
person only, and that his father, felt any displeasure with him. But
Prince Michael looked upon his son with a kind of bitter, resentful
scorn as a creature of his mother's type: weak in character, and holding
within him not one of those fierce and reckless traits which the
traditional Gregoriev proudly claimed for his own.

From the time of his babyhood, Ivan had lived in the extreme eastern end
of the house--as far as possible from his father's rooms. In this
putting of him away even from her own proximity, Sophia had shown the
self-sacrifice of devotion. During many a night had the unhappy woman
lain thinking of her child, hungering for the pressure of his young head
upon her breast, his little body by her side, nay, the sound of his
sleeping breath in the same room with her. But she was determined to
keep him as unfamiliar as possible with the details of his father's
existence; and only in this way was it to be done. By day, however, she
lived in the room that was first nursery, later school and living room,
making herself the companion of her boy in his every occupation,
patiently, from day to day, searching his childish face for incipient
signs of unhappiness or melancholy. But it was not until she was too
familiar with his every expression that such signs began to appear; and
then, through very over-intimacy, she failed to perceive the marks of
those peculiar characteristics that had already begun to mould his
nature.

At eleven, Ivan was tall and well grown, shapely of limb, delicate of
hand and foot, large-eyed, clear-skinned. In certain ways his face did
suggest the face of his mother. But the fine chiselling of her features
was augmented in the sensitiveness of his lip and nostril; and for the
rest, his eyes, that resembled soft, black pansies, and his jet-black,
stubborn hair, that grew like a thick, velvet cap above his smooth
forehead, were all his own. His hands,