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Rh there really was,—everybody acknowledged it. But it was something unfinished, like a phrase half spoken, a picture half painted, furniture unpolished and unvarnished.

"At last, one more bent! My old talent for music awoke in me, and I rushed at once to a musical school. I, the future composer, was studying harmony and counterpoint, and again everybody found that I had talent. The world of sounds swallowed me. I wanted to produce and create, and before I had reached a fugue, I was writing little songs and publishing them— Ah, I did not finish here either. My two songs had success, they were sung at concerts, yes, sir, and I decided I could write an opera. What is the use learning when you have talent? That is a good Russian reason—

"And do you know what I am now? I am a man without any definite specialty. I am a Russian who has a thousand talents and who is unfit for any definite business. I can play on the violin a quadrille from Fair Helen, I can write a sonnet, I can discuss Russian literature and history, I know a few things about Smith, Mill, and Marx, I have some ideas about the blood corpuscle, I possess a literary style, can compose a song,—and to sum all up, I am head-scribe in a bureau, of course, through protection. Am I not the same Iván? We are both Russians. Both he and I can do everything, and yet are good for nothing. Both of us have a thousand talents apiece. Well? He is the husband of my cook, and I—am head-scribe! The positions are different, but the sense of them is the same— Yes, sir!"

Here Bobróv rolled up a fat cigarette, gave a few puffs at it, took his cap, and bid his host farewell.

'''Semén Yákovlevich Nádson. (1862-1887.)'''

Nádson's grandfather was a Jew. His father, who had been a good musician, died when he was but two years old, and he also lost his mother and brothers early in youth. He was taken care of by relatives of his, and was sent to the Gymnasium, where he devoted himself to literature and music. His first printed poem appeared when he was but fifteen years old. Soon after began to show