He devised a new method of speculating with public funds--the method seemed an excellent one in itself--but he neglected to bribe in the right place, and was consequently informed against, and a more than unpleasant, a disgraceful scandal followed.

The general got out of the affair somehow, but his career was ruined; he was advised to retire from active duty.

For two years he lingered on in Petersburg, hoping to drop into some snug berth in the civil service, but no such snug berth came in his way.

His daughter had left school, his expenses were increasing every day.

Resigning himself to his fate, he decided to remove to Moscow for the sake of the greater cheapness of living, and took a tiny low-pitched house in the Old Stables Road, with a coat of arms seven feet long on the roof, and there began the life of a retired general at Moscow on an income of 2750 roubles a year.