As soon as this point was reached he determined to leave the service and retire to his property.  Many considerations urged him to take this step.  He enjoyed the title of Excellency which he had long coveted, and when he put on his full uniform his breast was bespangled with medals and decorations.  Since the death of his father the revenues of his estate had been steadily decreasing, and report said that the best wood in his forest was rapidly disappearing.  His wife had no love for the country, and would have preferred to settle in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but they found that with their small income they could not live in a large town in a style suitable to their rank.

The General determined to introduce order into his estate, and become a practical farmer; but a little experience convinced him that his new functions were much more difficult than the commanding of a regiment.  He has long since given over the practical management of the property to a steward, and he contents himself with exercising what he imagines to be an efficient control.  Though he wishes to do much, he finds small scope for his activity, and spends his days in pretty much the same way as Ivan Ivan’itch, with this difference, that he plays cards whenever he gets an opportunity, and reads regularly the Moscow Gazette and Russki Invalid, the official military paper.  What specially interests him is the list of promotions, retirements, and Imperial rewards for merit and seniority.  When he sees the announcement that some old comrade has been made an officer of his Majesty’s suite or has received a grand cordon, he frowns a little more than usual, and is tempted to regret that he retired from the service.  Had he waited patiently, perhaps a bit of good fortune might have fallen likewise to his lot.  This idea takes possession of him, and during the remainder of the day he is taciturn and morose.  His wife notices the change, and knows the reason of it, but has too much good sense and tact to make any allusion to the subject.

Anna Alexandrovna—­as the good lady is called—­is an elderly dame who does not at all resemble the wife of Ivan Ivan’itch.  She was long accustomed to a numerous military society, with dinner-parties, dancing, promenades, card-playing, and all the other amusements of garrison life, and she never contracted a taste for domestic concerns.  Her knowledge of culinary affairs is extremely vague, and she has no idea of how to make preserves, nalivka, and other home-made delicacies, though Maria Petrovna, who is universally acknowledged to be a great adept in such matters, has proposed a hundred times to give her some choice recipes.  In short, domestic affairs are a burden to her, and she entrusts them as far as possible to the housekeeper.  Altogether she finds country life very tiresome, but, possessing that placid, philosophical temperament which seems to have some casual connection with corpulence, she submits without murmuring, and