As far as was known, neither of the combatants had been troubled by the police.

Every one knew, for instance, that Gaganov had set off home early in the morning to Duhovo, without being hindered.
Meanwhile, of course, all were eager for some one to be the first to speak of it aloud, and so to open the door to the general impatience.
They rested their hopes on the general above-mentioned, and they were not disappointed.
This general, a landowner, though not a wealthy one, was one of the most imposing members of our club, and a man of an absolutely unique turn of mind.

He flirted in the old-fashioned way with the young ladies, and was particularly fond, in large assemblies, of speaking aloud with all the weightiness of a general, on subjects to which others were alluding in discreet whispers.

This was, so to say, his special role in local society.

He drawled, too, and spoke with peculiar suavity, probably having picked up the habit from Russians travelling abroad, or from those wealthy landowners of former days who had suffered most from the emancipation.