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After filling for three years the post of president of one of the

government boards at Moscow, Stepan Arkadyevitch had won the

respect, as well as the liking, of his fellow-officials,

subordinates, and superiors, and all who had had business with

him. The principal qualities in Stepan Arkadyevitch which had

gained him this universal respect in the service consisted, in

the first place, of his extreme indulgence for others, founded on

a consciousness of his own shortcomings; secondly, of his perfect

liberalism-not the liberalism he read of in the papers, but the

liberalism that was in his blood, in virtue of which he treated

all men perfectly equally and exactly the same, whatever their

fortune or calling might be; and thirdly-the most important

point-his complete indifference to the business in which he was

engaged, in consequence of which he was never carried away, and

never made mistakes.