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"That would be a capital match for our Glafira," said the major to his wife, after he had attended his visitors to the door: "though he is rather an unlicked cub, according to the vulgar saying, still he is young and rich."

"I perfectly agree with you, my dear," replied Mrs. Sundukow; "but still I feel much for poor Kudrin. He is attached with his whole soul to our girl; and if he is not rich, he is so affectionate, so modest, and so pious."

"Well, but have we not flatly rejected his suit, and forbidden him the house? How silly you are to harbour such ideas!"

"One can't speak, but you fly into a passion immediately. I merely said what I thought; but it rests with you to act as you please. I shall be heartily glad myself for Glafira to cut a figure as the wife of an opulent man."

Kudrin—likewise a neighbour of Sundukow's—who had early been left an orphan, was now, at the age of twenty-five years, master of the like number of peasants, and was just what Mrs. Sundukow described him. He had acquired a little polish in the house of a Russian grandee, and was a particular favourite with the major's lady, because he could give a tolerably connected account of the lives of the saints from the legends of the church, and never missed the morning service on holidays.

Kudrin had cherished for above a year an