“Oh, you are right again,” said the fair-haired traveller, “for I really am almost wrong when I say she and I are related. She is hardly a relation at all; so little, in fact, that I was not in the least surprised to have no answer to my letter. I expected as much.”

“H’m! you spent your postage for nothing, then. H’m! you are candid, however⁠—and that is commendable. H’m! Mrs. Epanchin⁠—oh yes! a most eminent person. I know her. As for Mr. Pavlicheff, who supported you in Switzerland, I know him too⁠—at least, if it was Nicolai Andreevitch of that name? A fine fellow he was⁠—and had a property of 4,000 souls in his day.”

“Yes, Nicolai Andreevitch⁠—that was his name,” and the young fellow looked earnestly and with curiosity at the all-knowing gentleman with the red nose.