wants to be there if only in the porch, or under the windows, despite burning heat or hard frost, to hear how the octaves swell, or the powerful tenor executes the most difficult variations.
The parish church of the Izmailov family was consecrated in honour of the Presentation in the Temple of the Blessed Virgin, and therefore on the eve of that festival, at the time that the events just related occurred, the youth of the whole town was collected there, and they left the church in a noisy crowd talking about the merits of a well-known tenor, and the accidental blunders of a no less celebrated bass.
Not all were occupied with these musical questions; there were some people in the crowd who interested themselves in other subjects.
"Yes, boys, fine things are related about that young Izmailova," said a young mechanic, who had been brought from Petersburg by one of the merchants for his steam factory, "they say," continued he, "that she and their young clerk Sergei are making love every minute."
"Everybody knows that," answered a man in a sheepskin coat covered with blue cloth. "She was not in church this evening either."
"Church indeed? That wicked young woman is so odious, that she no longer fears God, nor her conscience, nor the eye of man."
