“The peasant directed me to the _starosta’s_ cottage, and then slammed his door. I tapped at the door of the residence indicated, and it was opened by a woman. When I asked for the official I was in search of, she replied, ‘I am the _starosta_. What do you want?’ It appeared that she really was the _starosta_. The office was filled by all the peasants in the village in turn; and she, being an independent householder, took her turn like the men. I rattled off a wild story, how I had come for a holiday from Petersburg with some friends; how they had become intoxicated, and, for a practical joke, had returned home, leaving me alone on the island. The female _starosta_ evinced the warmest sympathy with my misfortune, gave me supper, and allowed me to pass the night in her cottage. “Next morning I hired a boat, arrived safely in Petersburg, and found my friends, who hid me for some time, while the police scoured the roads and country around Schlusselburg, and searched all the houses that appeared to them suspicious. When the excitement died down, I travelled as an ordinary passenger to the frontier, and have now arrived here.” That evening I took Kassatkin to live with me at my chambers, and found him a pleasant, easy-going fellow, whose shrewdness proved most valuable to me in the various matters upon which I was from time to time engaged. We went about a good deal, and made many friends. I had always been considered a fair amateur actor, and was prevailed upon to join a well-known dramatic club which gave frequent performances at Kensington Town Hall. Many of my friends belonged to the club, and I found the rehearsals a pleasant and amusing recreation, inasmuch as the people with whom I was brought into contact were useful to me in a variety of ways. They knew I was a foreigner, but believed me to be French, little suspecting that I was a Nihilist. One evening there had been a dress-rehearsal of a new comedy which we were about to produce for copyright purposes. I was cast for the part of an affected English curate, one of the chief characters in the piece. The rehearsal passed off satisfactorily, and it was nearly midnight when I left the hall and started on my walk homeward. I had a good hour’s tramp through the West End before me; but, as the night was clear and warm, I enjoyed the prospect rather than otherwise. As I walked along Kensington Gore there was scarce a sound in the street, save the occasional tread of a policeman, or the hurried footfall of the belated pleasure-seeker, breaking the stillness of the night suddenly, and then dying away in a succession of faint echoes.