I was devoured by curiosity.  Where am I going, thought I, if not to Saint Petersburg?  I did not take my eyes from the pen which my father moved slowly across the paper.

At last, the letter finished, he put it and my certificate under the same envelope, took off his spectacles, called me and said: 

“This letter is addressed to Andrew Karlovitch, my old friend and comrade.  You are going to Orenbourg to serve under orders.”

All my brilliant dreams vanished.  In place of the gay life of Saint Petersburg, ennui awaited me in a wild and distant province of the empire.  Military life seemed now a calamity.

The next morning a kibitka was at the door; my trunk was placed on it, and also a case holding tea and a tea-service, with some napkins full of rolls and pastry, the last sweet bits of the paternal home.  Both my parents gave me their solemn benediction.  My father said, “Adieu, Peter.  Serve faithfully him to whom your oath is given; obey your chiefs; neither seek favor, nor solicit service, but do not reject them; and remember the proverb:  ’Take care of thy coat whilst it is new, and thy honor whilst it is fresh.’”

My darling mother, all in tears, told me to take care of my health; and counseled Saveliitch to guard her child from danger.

I was wrapped up in a short touloup lined with hare-skin, and over that a pelisse lined fox-skin.  I took my seat in the kibitka with Saveliitch, and shedding bitter tears, set out for my destination.

That night I arrived at Simbirsk, where I was to stay twenty-four hours, in order that Saveliitch might make various purchases entrusted to him.  Early in the morning Saveliitch went to the shops, whilst I stayed in the inn.  Tired of gazing out of the window upon a dirty little street, I rambled about the inn, and at last entered the billiard-room.  I found there a tall gentleman, some forty years of age, with heavy black moustaches, in his dressing-gown, holding a cue and smoking his pipe.  He was playing with the marker, who was to drink a glass of brandy and water if he gained, and if he lost was to pass, on all-fours, under the billiard table.  I watched them playing.  The more they played the more frequent became the promenades on all-fours, so that finally the marker stayed under the table.  The gentleman pronounced over him some energetic expression, as a funeral oration, and then proposed that I should play a game with him.  I declared that I did not know how to play billiards.  That seemed strange to him.  He looked at me with commiseration.