Page:The fruits of culture; (IA fruitsofculture00tolsiala).pdf/7



THE CAST.

LEONID FEDOROVITCH SVESDINZEFF, a lieutenant of the Cavalry Guard a. D., proprietor of 24,000 desjatines in the various provinces. A vigorous man of about sixty, deferential, affable, gentlemanly. He is a believer in Spiritualism, and takes pleasure in startling people by the recital of his stories.

ANNA PAVLOVNA SVESDINZEFF, his wife, a stout, blooming lady, with the desire of appearing young: She entertains a strict regard for the conventional social forms, esteems her husband lightly, and puts a blind trust in her physician. An casily excitable lady.

BETSY, their daughter, a young lady of high society, about twenty years old. She is free in her manners, wears eyeglasses, flirts desperately, and laughs much. She talks very rapidly and very distinctly by moving her lips briskly like a foreigner.

VASSILI LEONIDITCH, their son; twenty-five years old, Dr. juris, without a practice, member of the Bicycle Club, the Race Club, and the Society for the Breeding of Greyhounds. A young man of excellent health and imperturbable self-possession. He talks loud and abruptly. Now perfectly serious, almost gloomy; now excessively gay, and laughing boisterously.