Russian Silhouettes

Stories of childhood: The boys. Grisha. A trifle from real life. The cook's wedding. Shrove Tuesday. In passion week. An incident. A matter of classics. The tutor. Out of sorts -- Stories of youth: A joke. After the theatre. Volodia. A naughty boy. Bliss. Two beautiful girls -- Light and shadow: The chorus girl. The father of a family. The orator. Ionitch. At Christmas time. In the coach house. Lady N----'s story. A journey by cart. The privy councillor. Rothschild's fiddle. A horsey name. The Petcheneg. The bishop

The absolutely unintelligible sayings of Tchetchevitsin, his continual whispered conversations with Volodia, and the fact that Volodia never played now and was always absorbed in thought—all this seemed to the girls to be both mysterious and strange. Katia and Sonia, the two oldest ones, began to spy on the boys, and when Volodia and his friend went to bed that evening, they crept to the door of their room and listened to the conversation inside. Oh! what did they hear? The boys were planning to run away to America in search of gold! They were all prepared for the journey and had a pistol ready, two knives, some dried bread, a magnifying-glass for lighting fires, a compass, and four roubles.