This event appeared extraordinary and inexplicable to those who did not know his inner motives, but for Prince Stepan Kasatsky himself it all occurred so naturally that he could not imagine how he could have acted otherwise. His father, a retired colonel of the Guards, had died when Stepan was twelve, and sorry as his mother was to part from her son, she entered him at the Military College as her deceased husband had intended. The widow herself, with her daughter, Varvara, moved to Petersburg to be near her son and have him with her for the holidays. The boy was distinguished both by his brilliant ability and by his immense self-esteem. He was first both in his studies-especially in mathematics, of which he was particularly fond-and also in drill and in riding. Though of more than average height, he