Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net A NOBLEMAN'S NEST ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NOVELS AND STORIES OF IVAN TURGENIEFF Published by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS RUDIN, AND A KING LEAR OF THE STEPPES A NOBLEMAN'S NEST ON THE EVE FATHERS AND CHILDREN SMOKE VIRGIN SOIL MEMOIRS OF A SPORTSMAN THE JEW, AND OTHER STORIES DIARY OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN, AND OTHER STORIES FIRST LOVE, AND OTHER STORIES PHANTOMS, AND OTHER STORIES THE BRIGADIER, AND OTHER STORIES SPRING FRESHETS, AND OTHER STORIES RECKLESS CHARACTER, AND OTHER STORIES ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A NOBLEMAN'S NEST BY IVAN TURGENIEFF TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY ISABEL F. HAPGOOD NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1924 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1903, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ---------- Printed in the United States of America ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A NOBLEMAN'S NEST (1858) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A NOBLEMAN'S NEST I The brilliant, spring day was inclining toward the evening, tiny rose-tinted cloudlets hung high in the heavens, and seemed not to be floating past, but retreating into the very depths of the azure. In front of the open window of a handsome house, in one of the outlying streets of O * * * the capital of a Government, sat two women; one fifty years of age, the other seventy years old, and already aged.