"Two days later I started for the assembly, having bid farewell to my wife in an excellent and tranquil state of mind.

In the district there was always much to be done.

It was a world and a life apart.

During two days I spent ten hours at the sessions.

The evening of the second day, on returning to my district lodgings, I found a letter from my wife, telling me of the children, of their uncle, of the servants, and, among other things, as if it were perfectly natural, that Troukhatchevsky had been at the house, and had brought her the promised scores.