A House of Gentlefolk | Page 4

into the
room, "Vladimir Nikolaitch is coming on horseback!"
Marya Dmitrievna got up; Sergei Petrovitch also rose and made a bow.
"Our humble respects to Elena Mihalovna," he said, and turning aside

into a corner for good manners, he began blowing his long straight
nose.
"What a splendid horse he has!" continued the little girl. "He was at the
gate just now, he told Lisa and me he would dismount at the steps."
The sound of hoofs was heard; and a graceful young man, riding a
beautiful bay horse, was seen in the street, and stopped at the open
window.





Chapter III
"How do you do, Marya Dmitrievna?" cried the young man in a
pleasant, ringing voice. "How do you like my new purchase?"
Marya Dmitrievna went up to the window.
"How do you do, Woldemar! Ah, what a splendid horse! Where did
you buy it?"
"I bought it from the army contractor . . . . He made me pay for it too,
the brigand!"
"What's its name?"
"Orlando . . . . But it's a stupid name; I want to change . . . . Eh bien, eh
bien, mon garcon . . . . What a restless beast it is!" The horse snorted,
pawed the ground, and shook the foam off the bit.

"Lenotchka, stroke him, don't be afraid."
The little girl stretched her hand out of the window, but Orlando
suddenly reared and started. The rider with perfect self-possession gave
it a cut with the whip across the neck, and keeping a tight grip with his
legs forced it in spite of its opposition, to stand still again at the
window.
"Prenez garde, prenez garde," Marya Dmitrievna kept repeating.
"Lenotchka, pat him," said the young man, "I won't let him be
perverse."
The little girl again stretched out her hand and timidly patted the
quivering nostrils of the horse, who kept fidgeting and champing the
bit.
"Bravo!" cried Marya Dmitrievna, "but now get off and come in to us."
The rider adroitly turned his horse, gave him a touch of the spur, and
galloping down the street soon reached the courtyard. A minute later he
ran into the drawing-room by the door from the hall, flourishing his
whip; at the same moment there appeared in the other doorway a tall,
slender dark-haired girl of nineteen, Marya Dmitrievna's eldest
daughter, Lisa.





Chapter IV
The name of the young man whom we have just introduced to the

reader was Vladimir Nikolaitch Panshin. He served in Petersburg on
special commissions in the department of internal affairs. He had come
to the town of O---- to carry out some temporary government
commissions, and was in attendance on the Governor-General
Zonnenberg, to whom he happened to be distantly related. Panshin's
father, a retired cavalry officer and a notorious gambler, was a man
with insinuating eyes, a battered countenance, and a nervous twitch
about the mouth. He spent his whole life hanging about the aristocratic
world; frequented the English clubs of both capitals, and had the
reputation of a smart, not very trustworthy, but jolly good-natured
fellow. In spite of his smartness, he was almost always on the brink of
ruin, and the property he left his son was small and
heavily-encumbered. To make up for that, however, he did exert
himself, after his own fashion, over his son's education. Vladimir
Nikolaitch spoke French very well, English well, and German badly;
that is the proper thing; fashionable people would be ashamed to speak
German well; but to utter an occasional--generally a humorous--phrase
in German is quite correct, c'est meme tres chic, as the Parisians of
Petersburg express themselves. By the time he was fifteen, Vladimir
knew how to enter any drawing-room without embarrassment, how to
move about in it gracefully and to leave it at the appropriate moment.
Panshin's father gained many connections for his son. He never lost an
opportunity, while shuffling the cards between two rubbers, or playing
a successful trump, of dropping a hint about his Volodka to any
personage of importance who was a devotee of cards. And Vladimir,
too, during his residence at the university, which he left without a very
brilliant degree, formed an acquaintance with several young men of
quality, and gained an entry into the best houses. He was received
cordially everywhere: he was very good-looking, easy in his manners,
amusing, always in good health, and ready for everything; respectful,
when he ought to be; insolent, when he dared to be; excellent company,
un charmant garcon. The promised land lay before him. Panshin
quickly learnt the secret of getting on in the world; he knew how to
yield with genuine respect to its decrees; he knew how to take up trifles
with half ironical seriousness, and to