Seite 850 von 1294

He, like everyone, had heard that there were, especially in

Petersburg, progressives of some sort, nihilists and so on, and,

like many people, he exaggerated and distorted the significance

of those words to an absurd degree. What for many years past he

had feared more than anything was _being shown up_ and this was

the chief ground for his continual uneasiness at the thought of

transferring his business to Petersburg. He was afraid of this as

little children are sometimes panic-stricken. Some years before,

when he was just entering on his own career, he had come upon two

cases in which rather important personages in the province,

patrons of his, had been cruelly shown up. One instance had ended

in great scandal for the person attacked and the other had very

nearly ended in serious trouble.