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"I should be afraid in your room at night," he observed gloomily.

"They are very good people, very kind," answered Sonia, who still

seemed bewildered, "and all the furniture, everything...

everything is theirs. And they are very kind and the children,

too, often come to see me."

"They all stammer, don't they?"

"Yes.... He stammers and he's lame. And his wife, too.... It's

not exactly that she stammers, but she can't speak plainly. She

is a very kind woman. And he used to be a house serf. And there

are seven children... and it's only the eldest one that stammers

and the others are simply ill... but they don't stammer.... But

where did you hear about them?" she added with some surprise.

"Your father told me, then. He told me all about you.... And how

you went out at six o'clock and came back at nine and how

Katerina Ivanovna knelt down by your bed."

Sonia was confused.

"I fancied I saw him to-day," she whispered hesitatingly.

"Whom?"