"Well, I am going then to tell you my life, and my whole frightful history,--yes, frightful.

And the story itself is more frightful than the outcome." He became silent for a moment, passed his hands over his eyes, and began:-- "To be understood clearly, the whole must be told from the beginning.

It must be told how and why I married, and what I was before my marriage.
First, I will tell you who I am.

The son of a rich gentleman of the steppes, an old marshal of the nobility, I was a University pupil, a graduate of the law school.

I married in my thirtieth year.