Lavretsky was about to acquaint him with his new position, but Mihalevitch interrupted him, muttering hurriedly, "I have heard, my dear fellow, I have heard--who could have anticipated it ?" and at once turned the conversation upon general subjects.
"I must set off to-morrow, my dear fellow," he observed; "to-day if you will excuse it, we will sit up late.

I want above all to know what you are like, what are your views and convictions, what you have become, what life has taught you." (Mihalevitch still preserved the phraseology of 1830.) "As for me, I have changed in much; the waves of life have broken over my breast--who was it said that ?--though in what is important, essential I have not changed; I believe as of old in the good, the true: but I do not only believe--I have faith now, yes, I have faith, faith.

Listen, you know I write verses; there is no poetry in them, but there is truth.

I will read you aloud my last poem; I have expressed my truest convictions in it.

Listen." Mihalevitch fell to reading his poem: it was rather long, and ended with the following lines: "I gave myself to new feelings with all my heart, And my soul became as a child's! And I have burnt all I adored And now adore all that I burnt." As he uttered the two last lines, Mihalevitch all but shed tears; a slight spasm--the sign of deep emotion--passed over his wide mouth, his ugly face lighted up.