such articles as mere instruments of dis-

traction from ennui and lack of employment. Also, he always adopted towards authors that half-contemptuous attitude which used to be maintained by gentry of the ancien regime ; for, like many of his day, he considered a writer of books to be a roisterer, a ne'er- do-well, a drunkard, a sort of merry- andrew. Also, he would read aloud items of intelligence from journals three years old such items as, < It is reported from The Hague that, on returning to the Palace from a short drive, the King gazed at the assembled onlookers through his spectacles," or '-At Vienna such and such an Ambassador has just presented his Letter of Credentials."

Again, there was a day when he read aloud the intelligence that a certain work by a foreign writer had just been translated into Russian.

"The only reason why, they go in for translating such things," remarked a small landowner who happened to be present, '* is that they may wheedle more money out of us dvoriane."^[1]

Meanwhile the little Ilya was engaged in journeying backwards and forwards to Schtoltz's school. Every Monday, when he