. . . The
winter that I knew her, she often spoke with hardly concealed pride of
her brother, who had shortly before completed his course, and promised
to be one of the most fashionable and popular young men in the best
society of Petersburg. As I knew by reputation the father of the
Guskofs, who was very rich and had a distinguished position, and as I
knew also the sister's ways, I felt some prejudice against meeting the
young man. One evening when I was at Ivashin's, I saw a short,
thoroughly pleasant-looking young man, in a black coat, white vest and
necktie. My host hastened to make me acquainted with him. The young man,
evidently dressed for a ball, with his cap in his hand, was standing
before Ivashin, and was eagerly but politely arguing with him about a
common friend of ours, who had distinguished himself at the time of the
Hungarian campaign. He said that this acquaintance was not at all a hero
or a man born for war, as was said of him, but was simply a clever and
cultivated man. I recollect, I took part in the argument against Guskof,
and went to the extreme of declaring also that intellect and cultivation
always bore an inverse relation to bravery; and I recollect how Guskof
pleasantly and cleverly pointed out to me that bravery was necessarily
the result of intellect and a decided degree of development,--a
statement which I, who considered myself an intellectual and cultivated
man, could not in my heart of hearts agree with.
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