I recollect that towards the close of our conversation Madame Ivashina
introduced me to her brother; and he, with a condescending smile,
offered me his little hand on which he had not yet had time to draw his
kid gloves, and weakly and irresolutely pressed my hand as he did now.
Though I had been prejudiced against Guskof, I could not help granting
that he was in the right, and agreeing with his sister that he was
really a clever and agreeable young man, who ought to have great success
in society. He was extraordinarily neat, beautifully dressed, and fresh,
and had affectedly modest manners, and a thoroughly youthful, almost
childish appearance, on account of which you could not help excusing his
expression of self-sufficiency, though it modified the impression of his
high-mightiness caused by his intellectual face and especially his
smile. It is said that he had great success that winter with the high-
born ladies of Moscow. As I saw him at his sister's I could only infer
how far this was true by the feeling of pleasure and contentment
constantly excited in me by his youthful appearance and by his sometimes
indiscreet anecdotes. He and I met half a dozen times, and talked a good
deal; or, rather, he talked a good deal, and I listened.
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