me; but I was an uninvited guest at the luncheon--the General
had forgotten to arrange otherwise, or I should have been
dispatched to dine at the table d'hote. Nevertheless, I presented
myself in such guise that the General looked at me with a touch
of approval; and, though the good Maria Philipovna was for
showing me my place, the fact of my having previously met the
Englishman, Mr. Astley, saved me, and thenceforward I figured as
one of the company.
This strange Englishman I had met first in Prussia, where we had
happened to sit vis-a-vis in a railway train in which I was
travelling to overtake our party; while, later, I had run across
him in France, and again in Switzerland--twice within the space
of two weeks! To think, therefore, that I should suddenly
encounter him again here, in Roulettenberg! Never in my life had
I known a more retiring man, for he was shy to the pitch of
imbecility, yet well aware of the fact (for he was no fool). At
the same time, he was a gentle, amiable sort of an individual,
and, even on our first encounter in Prussia I had contrived to
draw him out, and he had told me that he had just been to the
North Cape, and was now anxious to visit the fair at Nizhni
Novgorod. How he had come to make the General's acquaintance I
do not know, but, apparently, he was much struck with Polina.
Also, he was delighted that I should sit next him at table, for
he appeared to look upon me as his bosom friend.
During the meal the Frenchman was in great feather: he was
discursive and pompous to every one. In Moscow too, I
remembered, he had blown a great many bubbles. Interminably he
discoursed on finance and Russian politics, and though, at
times, the General made feints to contradict him, he did so
humbly, and as though wishing not wholly to lose sight of his
own dignity.
For myself, I was in a curious frame of mind. Even before
luncheon was half finished I had asked myself the old, eternal
question: "WHY do I continue to dance attendance upon the
General, instead of having left him and his family long ago?"
Every now and then I would glance at Polina Alexandrovna, but
she paid me no attention; until eventually I became so irritated
that I decided to play the boor.
First of all I suddenly, and for no reason whatever, plunged
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