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Among the cultivated Russians, on the contrary, the
foreigner will often enough meet with instability and
capriciousness, of which the young men of Turgenief
afford so many examples. Little traits which illustrate
it will be at his service by the scores: —
A young Russian sees a young Englishwoman on a
public promenade in Heidelberg. He does not rest until
he has won her, and she gives him her hand. They
come to Russia. He has little property and does not
care to work to any extent. He has hardly passed the
honeymoon before he declares that there is no
congeniality, no affinity to be found between him and his wife.
They then live in different cities: he amuses himself as
well as he can in St. Petersburg; she remains in
Schüsselburg, educates her daughter, in the English style, to
independence, lives constantly in recollection of her
husband. He amuses himself, travels, as a choice lies
in a boat on the Black Sea and dreams. He is now
forty years old and has not yet found his career. He
has for a long time been a farmer, but wishes to change
his occupation and become an advocate.
Is not that Russian? asks the foreigner. It is human,
and common to the Slavs. A Pole has certainly not
very infrequently done about the same. A Frenchman
might, I dare say, become tired of an Englishwoman,
but would hardly enter upon a new career at forty. A
German would apply for a divorce, remain at his trade,
and immediately marry again. It is Slavic, it is true,
but hardly peculiarly Russian.
“Tell me your family drama,” says the foreigner to
his Russian acquaintances. They tell a story like this:
There were two brothers L., of the aristocracy, one
married but childless. His wife becomes enceinte, and
informs her husband that his brother is the father of the
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