“No, not a duel, but that stupid and terrible affair! I will tell you all about it if you have not heard it. It was that same year when you and I used to meet at my sister’s. I was then living in Petersburg. But first I must tell you that I then had what is called une position dans le monde . and a tolerably lucrative, if not brilliant one. Mon père me donnait 10,000 par an. In ’49 I was promised a place in the embassy at Turin; an uncle on my mother’s side had influence and was always ready to give me a lift. It’s now a thing of the past. J’étais reçu dans la meilleure société de Petersbourg; je pouvais prétendre to make a good match. I had learnt—as we all learn at school; so that I possessed no special education. It is true I read a good deal afterwards, mais j’avais surtout , you know, ce jargon du monde ; and, whatever the cause, I was considered one of the leading young men in Petersburg. What raised me most in the general estimation, c’est cette liaison avec Mme. D⸺ , which was much talked of in Petersburg. But I was awfully young at the time, and set little value on these advantages. I was simply young and foolish. What more did I need? At that time in Petersburg that fellow Metenin had a reputation …” And Guskov continued in this manner to tell me the story of his misfortune, which, being quite uninteresting, I shall here omit.
“Two months,” continued he, “I was under arrest