I would not enter it, and therefore cannot say whether it was his own fault or that of his master. In order to give an example of the state of moral feeling in the country, I will narrate a little incident that occurred one evening at the house of a lady of very high rank: a Madame ——, the wife of a governor of a large province, was present; and Prince T——koi, who had been ordered to join his regiment, had come to take leave of his friends: to my astonishment, Madame —— burst into a violent flood of tears, and “refused to be comforted,” when she bid him adieu. On my inquiring why she was so affected, the prince being no relation of hers, I was informed that, “poor thing! she was so deeply in love with him that she was unable _maîtriser son émotion_.” I ventured to remark that it was rather disagreeable to her husband that she should make so public a display of her preference for another. For my pains I was told that I had no heart, and that, like all the English, I was quite destitute of feeling. I _do_ believe that not a lady was there present who did not regard her as quite a martyr of sensibility. Many of the noblesse are extremely poor; indeed, it is almost a wonder how they can exist. A great cause of their indigence is the equal division of the family estates among all the children. M. M——ff, a gentleman belonging to one of the most ancient houses in Russia—indeed, he used to boast of his descent from Rurick, the founder of the empire—often bitterly lamented the subdivision of the property. “My father,” said he, “had eight children; he was possessed of a fortune of four thousand slaves, a very handsome estate; when he died we each had five hundred as our share; I have four sons and a daughter, among whom my patrimony must be again subdivided; if they marry, they must be very poor, and, if they have families, still more so; by this means my descendants will eventually become mere beggars.” Another common cause of their poverty is their propensity for gambling, which ruins many. One day an old gentleman called on Madame P——ska, a lady with whom I was well acquainted in St. Petersburg; he came to borrow a few rubles, which she kindly gave him. On his leaving the room I begged to know what had thus reduced him. “Ah! poor man,” said my friend, “think how unfortunate he has been; he once possessed fourteen thousand slaves, and he lost them all at cards.” I said I was sorry that a man of his years should have rendered himself miserable by such a vice. “How old do you think him?” asked my friend. “Oh, sixty at the least.” “Sixty!” answered she, “he is past eighty, only he wears a wig, paints his eyebrows, and rouges to make himself look younger.” Wretched old man! he died soon after I saw him, on his return from a card-party; he was found lifeless on his bed, and did not leave a single ruble to defray the expenses of his interment. CHAPTER V.