Their difficulties over the property were settled, by the way, without fuss or publicity.

Varvara Petrovna took it all on herself, and paid all that was owing, taking over the land, of course, and only informed Stepan Trofimovitch that it was all settled and her butler, Alexey Yegorytch, was, by her authorisation, bringing him something to sign.

This Stepan Trofimovitch did, in silence, with extreme dignity.

Apropos of his dignity, I may mention that I hardly recognised my old friend during those days.

He behaved as he had never done before; became amazingly taciturn and had not even written one letter to Varvara Petrovna since Sunday, which seemed to me almost a miracle.