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 and then afterward, if you like, come home with me. I should greatly like to hear your work."

"It is only a sketch, not worth much; but I should like to go with you to the session."

"What is that, batyushka? Have you heard? He gave a special opinion," said Katavasof, who was putting on his dress-coat in the next room.

And the talk turned on the university question.

The university question was a very important topic this winter in Moscow. Three old professors in the council would not accept the opinion of the younger ones; the younger ones expressed a special opinion. This opinion, according to some, was dreadful, according to others was the simplest and most righteous of opinions, and the professors were divided into two parties.

The one to which Katavasof belonged saw in the opposition dastardly violation of faith, and deception; the other side charged their opponents with childishness and lack of confidence in the authorities.

Levin, although he was not connected with the university, had heard and talked much during his stay in Moscow regarding this affair, and had his own opinion regarding it. So he took part in the conversation, which was continued even after they had got out into the street, and until they had all three reached the buildings of the old university.

The session had already begun. Six men were sitting around a table covered with a cloth; and one of them, nearly doubled up over a manuscript, was reading something. Katavasof and Metrof took their places at the table. Levin sat down in an unoccupied chair near a student, and asked him in a low voice what they were reading. The student, looking angrily at Levin, replied:—

"The biography."

Levin did not care much for the savant's biography, still he could not help listening, and he learned various interesting particulars of the life of the celebrated man.

When the reader came to an end, the chairman congratulated him, and then read some verses which had