At last he turned from the looking-glass to me, and with a sort of strange despair, said: "_Mon cher, je suis un_ broken-down man." Yes, certainly, up to that time, up to that very day there was one thing only of which he had always felt confident in spite of the "new views," and of the "change in Varvara Petrovna's ideas," that was, the conviction that still he had a fascination for her feminine heart, not simply as an exile or a celebrated man of learning, but as a handsome man.

For twenty years this soothing and flattering opinion had been rooted in his mind, and perhaps of all his convictions this was the hardest to part with.
Had he any presentiment that evening of the colossal ordeal which was preparing for him in the immediate future?
VI I will now enter upon the description of that almost forgotten incident with which my story properly speaking begins.
At last at the very end of August the Drozdovs returned.

Their arrival made a considerable sensation in local society, and took place shortly before their relation, our new governor's wife, made her long-expected appearance.

But of all these interesting events I will speak later.
For the present I will confine myself to saying that Praskovya Ivanovna brought Varvara Petrovna, who was expecting her so impatiently, a most perplexing problem: Nikolay had parted from them in July, and, meeting Count K.on the Rhine, had set off with him and his family for Petersburg.

(N.B .-- The Count's three daughters were all of marriageable age.) "Lizaveta is so proud and obstinate that I could get nothing out of her," Praskovya Ivanovna said in conclusion.