danov went down to dinner, which was announced
by a Chinese gong, not by a bell. The whole company was already
assembled in the dining room. Sipiagin welcomed him again from behind
his high cravat, and showed him to a place between Anna Zaharovna and
Kolia. Anna Zaharovna was an old maid, a sister of Sipiagin's father;
she exhaled a smell of camphor, like a garment that had been put away
for a long time, and had a nervous, dejected look. She had acted as
Kolia's nurse or governess, and her wrinkled face expressed displeasure
when Nejdanov sat down between her and her charge. Kolia looked sideways
at his new neighbour; the intelligent boy soon saw that his tutor was
shy and uncomfortable, that he did not raise his eyes, and scarcely ate
anything. This pleased Kolia, who had been afraid that his tutor would
be cross and severe. Valentina Mihailovna also watched Nejdanov.

"He looks like a student," she thought to herself. "He's not accustomed
to society, but has a very interesting face, and the colour of his hair
is like that of the apostle whose hair the old Italian masters always
painted red--and his hands are clean!" Indeed, everybody at the table
stared at Nejdanov, but they had mercy on him, and left him in peace
for the time being. He was conscious of this, and was pleased and angry
about it at the same time.

Sipiagin and Kollomietzev carried on the conversation. They talked about
the county council, the governor, the highway tax, the peasants buying
out the land, about mutual Moscow and St. Petersburg acquaintances,
Katkov's lyceum, which was just coming into fashion, about the
difficulty of getting labour, penalties, and damage caused by cattle,
even of Bismarck, the war of 1866, and Napoleon III., whom Kollomietzev
called a hero. Kollomietzev gave vent to the most retrograde opinions,
going so far as to propose, in jest it is true, a toast given by a
certain friend of his on a names-day banquet, "I drink to the only
principle I acknowledge, the whip and Roedeger!"

Valentina Mihailovna frowned, and remarked that it was de tres mauvais
gout.

Sipiagin, on the contrary, expressed the most liberal views, refuted
Kollomietzev's arguments politely, though with a certain amount of
disdain, and even chaffed him a little.

"Your terror of emancipation, my dear Simion Petrovitch," he said, "puts
me in mind of our much respected friend, Alexai Ivanovitch Tveritinov,
and the petition he sent in, in the year 1860. He i