Liza | Page 6

Petrovich, that he is a far-away cousin of
mine?"
"To be sure, to be sure! You surely don't suppose I could be ignorant of
any thing that concerns your family."
"Will he come to see us? What do you think?"
"One would suppose so; but afterwards, I am told, he will go and live
on his estate in the country."
Maria Dmitrievna lifted her eyes towards heaven.
"Oh, Sergius Petrovich, Sergius Petrovich! how often I think how
necessary it is for us women to behave circumspectly!"
"There are women and women, Maria Dmitrievna. There are,
unfortunately, some who are--of an unstable character; and then there is
a certain time of life--and, besides, good principles have not been
instilled into them when they were young."
Here Sergius Petrovich drew from his pocket a blue handkerchief, of a
check pattern, and began to unfold it.
"Such women, in fact, do exist."
Here Sergius Petrovich applied a corner of the handkerchief to each of
his eyes in turn.

"But, generally speaking, if one reflects--that is to say--The dust in the
streets is something extraordinary," he ended by saying.
"Maman, maman," exclaimed a pretty little girl of eleven, who came
running into the room, "Vladimir Nikolaevich is coming here on
horseback."
Maria Dmitrievna rose from her chair. Sergius Petrovich also got up
and bowed.
"My respects to Elena Mikhailovna," he said; and, discreetly retiring to
a corner, he betook himself to blowing his long straight nose.
"What a lovely horse he has!" continued the little girl. "He was at the
garden gate just now, and he told me and Liza that he would come up
to the front door."
The sound of hoofs was heard, and a well appointed cavalier, mounted
on a handsome bay horse, rode up to the house, and stopped in front of
the open window.

III.
"Good-evening, Maria Dmitrievna!" exclaimed the rider's clear and
pleasant voice. "How do you like my new purchase?"
Maria Dmitrievna went to the window.
"Good-evening, Woldemar! Ah, what a splendid horse! From whom
did you buy it?"
"From our remount-officer. He made me pay dear for it, the rascal."
"What is it's name?"
"Orlando. But that's a stupid name. I want to change it. _Eh bien, eh
bien, mon garçon_. What a restless creature it is!"

The horse neighed, pawed the air, and tossed the foam from its nostrils.
"Come and stroke it, Lenochka; don't be afraid."
Lenochka stretched out her hand from the window, but Orlando
suddenly reared and shied. But its rider, who took its proceedings very
quietly, gripped the saddle firmly with his knees, laid his whip across
the horse's neck, and forced it, in spite of its resistance, to return to the
window, "Prenez garde, prenez garde," Maria Dmitrievna kept calling
out.
"Now then, stroke him, Lenochka," repeated the horseman; "I don't
mean to let him have his own way."
Lenochka stretched out her hand a second time, and timidly touched the
quivering nostrils of Orlando, who champed his bit, and kept
incessantly fidgeting.
"Bravo!" exclaimed Maria Dmitrievna; "but now get off, and come in."
The rider wheeled his horse sharply round, drove the spurs into its sides,
rode down the street at a hand gallop, and turned into the court-yard. In
another minute he had crossed the hall and entered the drawing-room,
flourishing his whip in the air.
At the same moment there appeared on the threshold of another
doorway a tall, well-made, dark-haired girl of nineteen--Maria
Dmitrievna's elder daughter, Liza.

IV.
The young man whom we have just introduced to our readers was
called Vladimir Nikolaevich Panshine. He occupied a post at St.
Petersburg--one devoted to business of a special character--in the
Ministry of the Interior. He had come to O. about certain affairs of a
temporary nature, and was placed there at the disposal of the governor,
General Zonnenberg, to whom he was distantly related.

Panshine's father, a retired cavalry officer,[A] who used to be well
known among card-players, was a man of a worn face, with weak eyes,
and a nervous contraction about the lips. Throughout his life he always
revolved in a distinguished circle, frequenting the English Clubs[B] of
both capitals, and being generally considered a man of ability and a
pleasant companion, though not a person to be confidently depended
upon. In spite of all his ability, he was almost always just on the verge
of ruin, and he ultimately left but a small and embarrassed property to
his only son. About that son's education, however, he had, after his own
fashion, taken great pains.
[Footnote A: A Shtabs-Rotmistr, the second captain in a cavalry
regiment.]
[Footnote B: Fashionable clubs having nothing English about them but
their name.]
The young Vladimir Nikolaevich spoke excellent French, good English,
and bad German. That is just as it should