They were wealthy people.

Praskovya Ivanovna had been, in her first marriage, a Madame Tushin, and like her school-friend, Varvara Petrovna, was the daughter of a government contractor of the old school, and she too had been an heiress at her marriage.

Tushin, a retired cavalry captain, was also a man of means, and of some ability.

At his death he left a snug fortune to his only daughter Liza, a child of seven.

Now that Lizaveta Nikolaevna was twenty-two her private fortune might confidently be reckoned at 200,000 roubles, to say nothing of the property--which was bound to come to her at the death of her mother, who had no children by her second marriage.