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All the members of that family, especially the feminine half,

were pictured by him, as it were, wrapped about with a mysterious

poetical veil, and he not only perceived no defects whatever in

them, but under the poetical veil that shrouded them he assumed

the existence of the loftiest sentiments and every possible

perfection.

Why it was the three young ladies had one day to speak French,

and the next English; why it was that at certain hours they

played by turns on the piano, the sounds of which were audible in

their brother's room above, where the students used to work; why

they were visited by those professors of French literature, of

music, of drawing, of dancing; why at certain hours all the three

young ladies, with Mademoiselle Linon, drove in the coach to the

Tversky boulevard, dressed in their satin cloaks, Dolly in a long

one, Natalia in a half-long one, and Kitty in one so short that

her shapely legs in tightly-drawn red stockings were visible to

all beholders; why it was they had to walk about the Tversky

boulevard escorted by a footman with a gold cockade in his

hat-all this and much more that was done in their mysterious

world he did not understand, but he was sure that everything that

was done there was very good, and he was in love precisely with

the mystery of the proceedings.