" "Never mind; you tell them I'll pay the bill!" and he vanished, nodding genially to an acquaintance who drove by.

The next day was Sunday.

Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the Grand Theater to a rehearsal of the ballet, and gave Masha Tchibisova, a pretty dancing-girl whom he had just taken under his protection, the coral necklace he had promised her the evening before, and behind the scenes in the dim daylight of the theater, managed to kiss her pretty little face, radiant over her present.