Chapter 20

THE IWINS

As for the prospect of my call upon the Prince, it seemed even
more unpleasant. However, the order of my route took me first to
the Iwins, who lived in a large and splendid mansion in Tverskaia
Street. It was not without some nervousness that I entered the
great portico where a Swiss major-domo stood armed with his staff
of office.

To my inquiry as to whether any one was at home he replied: "Whom
do you wish to see, sir? The General's son is within."

"And the General himself?" I asked with forced assurance.

"I must report to him your business first. What may it be, sir?"
said the major-domo as he rang a bell. Immediately the gaitered
legs of a footman showed themselves on the staircase above;
whereupon I was seized with such a fit of nervousness that I
hastily bid the lacquey say nothing about my presence to the
General, since I would first see his son. By the time I had
reached the top of the long staircase, I seemed to have grown
extremely small (metaphorically, I mean, not actually), and had
very much the same feeling within me as had possessed my soul
when my drozhki drew up to the great portico, namely, a feeling
as though drozhki, horse, and coachman had all of them grown
extremely small too. I found the General's son lying asleep on a
sofa, with an open book before him. His tutor, Monsieur Frost,
under whose care he still pursued his studies at home, had
entered behind me with a sort of boyish tread, and now awoke his
pupil. Iwin evinced no particular pleasure at seeing me, while I
also seemed to notice that, while talking to me, he kept looking
at my eyebrows. Although he was perfectly polite, I conceived
that he was "entertaining" me much as the Princess Valakhin had
done, and that he not only felt no particular liking for me, but
even that he considered my acquaintance in no way necessary to
one who possessed his own circle of friends. All this arose out
of the idea that he was regarding my eyebrows. In short, his
bearing towards me appeared to be (as I recognised with an
awkward sensation) very much the same as my own towards Ilinka
Grap. I began to feel irritated, and to interpret every fleeting
glance which he cast at Monsieur Frost as a mute inquiry: "Why
has this fellow come to see me?"

After some conversation he remarked that his father and mother
were at home. Would I not like to visit them too?

"First I will go and dress myself," he added as he departed to
another room, notwithstanding that he had seemed to be perfectly
well dressed (in a new frockcoat and white waistcoat) in the
present one. A few minutes later he reappeared in his University
uniform, buttoned up to the