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She had proposed to make this clear to them at dinner with

allusions to her late father's governorship, and also at the same

time to hint that it was exceedingly stupid of them to turn away

on meeting her. The fat colonel-major (he was really a discharged

officer of low rank) was also absent, but it appeared that he had

been "not himself" for the last two days. The party consisted of

the Pole, a wretched looking clerk with a spotty face and a

greasy coat, who had not a word to say for himself, and smelt

abominably, a deaf and almost blind old man who had once been in

the post office and who had been from immemorial ages maintained

by someone at Amalia Ivanovna's.