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A MEETING.
VIRGINSKY LIVED IN HIS OWN house, or rather his wife's, in Muravyin Street.

It was a wooden house of one story, and there were no lodgers in it.

On the pretext of Virginsky's-name-day party, about fifteen guests were assembled; but the entertainment was not in the least like an ordinary provincial name-day party.

From the very beginning of their married life the husband and wife had agreed once for all that it was utterly stupid to invite friends to celebrate name-days, and that "there is nothing to rejoice about in fact." In a few years they had succeeded in completely cutting themselves off from all society.