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lady. She and her aunt lived in her father’s house with a sort
of voluntary humility, not putting themselves on an equal-
ity with other people. She was a general favourite, and of
use of everyone, for she was a clever dressmaker. She had
a talent for it. She gave her services freely without asking
for payment, but if anyone offered her payment, she didn’t
refuse. The colonel, of course, was a very different matter.
He was one of the chief personages in the district. He kept
open house, entertained the whole town, gave suppers and
dances. At the time I arrived and joined the battalion, all
the town was talking of the expected return of the colonel’s
second daughter, a great beauty, who had just left a fashion-
able school in the capital. This second daughter is Katerina
Ivanovna, and she was the child of the second wife, who
belonged to a distinguished general’s family; although, as
I learnt on good authority, she too brought the colonel no
money. She had connections, and that was all. There may
have been expectations, but they had come to nothing.
‘Yet, when the young lady came from boarding-school on
a visit, the whole town revived. Our most distinguished la-
dies — two ‘Excellencies’ and a colonel’s wife — and all the
rest following their lead, at once took her up and gave enter-
tainments in her honour. She was the belle of the balls and
picnics, and they got up tableaux vivants in aid of distressed
governesses. I took no notice, I went on as wildly as before,
and one of my exploits at the time set all the town talk-
ing. I saw her eyes taking my measure one evening at the
battery commander’s, but I didn’t go up to her, as though I
disdained her acquaintance. I did go up and speak to her at