These last-mentioned calls, however, Dimitri advised me not to pay: saying that it was not only unnecessary to do so, but not the thing. However, there were the other visits to be got through. It was the first two on the list — those marked as to be paid “WITHOUT FAIL” — that most alarmed me. Prince Ivan Ivanovitch was a commander-in-chief, as well as old, wealthy, and a bachelor. Consequently, I foresaw that vis-a-vis conversation between him and myself — myself a sixteen-year-old student! — was not likely to be interesting. As for the Iwins, they too were rich — the father being a departmental official of high rank who had only on one occasion called at our house during my grandmother’s time.

Since her death, I had remarked that the younger Iwin had fought shy of us, and