“I cannot get the overture of Oberon here,” he began.  “Madame Byelenitsin was boasting when she said she had all the classical music:  in reality she has nothing but polkas and waltzes, but I have already written to Moscow, and within a week you will have the overture.  By the way,” he went on, “I wrote a new song yesterday, the words too are mine, would you care for me to sing it?  I don’t know how far it is successful.  Madame Byelenitsin thought it very pretty, but her words mean nothing.  I should like to know what you think of it.  But, I think, though, that had better be later on.”

“Why later on?” interposed Marya Dmitrievna, “why not now?”

“I obey,” replied Panshin, with a peculiar bright and sweet smile, which came and went suddenly on his face.  He drew up a chair with his knee, sat down to the piano, and striking a few chords began to sing, articulating the words clearly, the following song—­

Above the earth the moon floats high
Amid pale clouds;
Its magic light in that far sky
Yet stirs the floods.

My heart has found a moon to rule
Its stormy sea;
To joy and sorrow it is moved
Only by thee.

My soul is full of love’s cruel smart,
And longing vain;
But thou art calm, as that cold moon,
That knows not pain.

The second couplet was sung by Panshin with special power and expression, the sound of waves was heard in the stormy accompaniment.  After the words “and longing vain,” he sighed softly, dropped his eyes and let his voice gradually die away, morendo.  When he had finished, Lisa praised the motive, Marya Dmitrievna cried, “Charming!” but Gedeonovsky went so far as to exclaim, “Ravishing poetry, and music equally ravishing!” Lenotchka looked with childish reverence at the singer.  In short, every one present was delighted with the young dilettante’s composition; but at the door leading into the drawing-room from the hall stood an old man, who had only just come in, and who, to judge by the expression of his downcast face and the shrug of his shoulders, was by no means pleased with Panshin’s song, pretty though it was.  After waiting a moment and flicking the dust off his boots with a coarse pocket-handkerchief, this man suddenly raised his eyes, compressed his lips with a morose expression, and his stooping figure bent forward, he entered the drawing-room.

“Ah!  Christopher Fedoritch, how are you?” exclaimed Panshin before any of the others could speak, and he jumped up quickly from his seat.  “I had no suspicion that you were here—­nothing would have induced me to sing my song before you.  I know you are no lover of light music.”

“I did not hear it,” declared the new-comer, in very bad Russian, and exchanging greetings with every one, he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

“Have you come, Monsieur Lemm,” said Marya Dmitrievna, “to give Lisa her music lesson?”

“No, not Lisaveta Mihalovna, but Elena Mihalovna.”