A Nest of the Gentry [antikvár]

A fail' spring day was drawing to a close. Little rosy clouds liung fiigh in the clear sky, seeming to melt in the azure depths as they floated slowly past. Before the open window of a handsome house in the suburbs of the gubernia town of O—(it was in the year 1842) sat two women; one was about fifty years of age, the other an old lady of seventy. The name of the former was Marya Dmitrievna Kalitina. Her husband, ex-public prosecutor of the gubernia, noted in his day as a man of business, an active, resourceful man of stubborn and choleric temper, had been dead for ten years. He had received a good education and graduated the university; but having been born among the humbler orders he realized early in life the necessity of making his way in the world and lining his pocket. It had been a love match on Marya Dmitriev-na's side, for he had been quite a good-looking man, clever. and amiable when he chose. Marya Dmitrievna (nee Peslova) had lost her parents in childhood. She spent some years in Moscow in a ladies' institute and on her return lived on Die family estate in the village of Pokrovskoye, about fifty versts from O— with her aimt and an elder brother. This brother shortly moved to St. Petersburg, where he held a government post, and treated his sister and aunt high-handedly till sudden death cut short his career. Marya Dmitrievna inherited Pokrovskoye, but she did not live there long: a year after her marriage to Kalitin, who had conquered her heart in the space of a few days, Pokrovskoye was exchanged for a more lucrative estate which, however, was unattractive and (had no homestead. At the same time Kalitin took a house in the town of O—• in which he and his wife took up their permanent abode. The house stood in a large garden which on one side overlooked the open country. "And so," decided Kalitin, who was no lover of rural amenities, "there'll be no going off to the country." At bottom Marya Dmitrievna more than once rued the loss of iher pretty Pokrovskoye with its smiling brook, its broad meadows and green groves; but sihe never in any way opposed her husband, of whose wisdom and knowledge of the world she stood in profoundest awe. However, when after fifteen years of married life, he died leaving her with a son and two daughters, Marya Dmitrievna had grown so accustomed to her house and town life that she had no wish to leave 0 —. In her youth Marya Dmitrievna had had the reputation of being a pretty blonde; even at fifty her features had not lo.st all their charm, though they were rather puffy and had lost their delicacy. She was sentimental rather than kind-hearted, and retained her school-day mannerisms even at a mature age; she coddled ^herself, was easily irritated and would even grow tearful if her habits were interfered with; but she could also l)e very gracious and kind when humoured and nobody gainsaid her. Her house was one of the most agreeable in the town. She had a pretty fortune, not so much from her own legacy as through her husband's thrift. Both daughters lived 6