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possessions of Ivan Petróvitch Beréstoff lay in one of our remote provinces. He had served in the Guards in his youth, but had retired early in the year 1797, and settled on his property, which he never again quitted. He had married a lady of noble birth, but in indigent circumstances, who died in child-bed during his absence when on a visit to one of his distant estates. He soon found consolation in his house occupations. Having built a house according to a design of his own, and established a cloth manufactory, he put his money matters in order, and began to consider himself the cleverest man in the place,—an opinion which was never disputed by his neighbours, who used to visit him accompanied by their families and their dogs. He wore on week-days a plush jacket, and on holidays a surtout of home-spun; he kept his own accounts, and read nothing but The Senate News.

He was generally liked, though people thought him proud. It was only his nearest neighbour, Grigory Ivánovitch Múromsky, who could not get on with him. He was a thorough Russian country gentleman. Having squandered at Moscow the greatest part of his fortune,