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54
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
sented the head of the family, as a matter of fact
every one who took it into his head could order him
about, and that was the way every one in the family
treated him — like an elderly child. He had long
enjoyed the reputation of being an eccentric man, and a
dreamer. His wife had died several years earlier.
He had made over the whole of his fairly large estate
to his only son, having stipulated only that he should
receive a very insignificant monthly allowance, and,
being thus left without any fixed occupation, he came
frequently to visit us at Palibino, and remained for
weeks at a time. We always regarded his arrival as
a festival, and the atmosphere of the house became,
somehow, more agreeable, more lively when he was
there.
The library was his favorite nook. He was
excessively lazy where any sort of physical exertion was
concerned, and would sit motionless for days together
on a large leather-covered divan, with one leg tucked
up under him, with his left eye, which was weaker
than the right, screwed up, and wholly absorbed in
the perusal of the "Revue des Deux Mon des," his
favorite periodical.
His sole weakness was reading to excess, to the
verge of insanity. He was greatly interested in
politics. He devoured with avidity the newspapers,
which reached us once a week, and then he sat and
meditated for a long while: " What new mischief is
that scamp of a Napoleon concocting now 1" During
the last years of his life Bismarck also caused him a
great deal of mental labor. However, uncle was
convinced that " Napoleon would gobble up Bismarck,"
and, as he died shortly before 1870, he retained that
conviction to the end.
As soon as it was a question of politics, uncle ex-
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