{ 30}. From the sketch of the year 1831-2: "The guests were arriving at the country-house." See Pushkin, edited by S. A. Vengerov, Petersburg, 1910, Vol. IV, pages 255-258.
{ 31}. In P. Biryukov's Biography, Vol. II, page 205, the words are given thus: "That is how one should begin. The reader is at once made to feel the interest of the plot. Another writer would begin to describe the guests, the rooms, but Pushkin goes straight to the point."
{ 32}. This quotation is a combination of two passages from L. N. T.'s letter to Countess A. A. Tolstoy of December, 1874. In the beginning of this letter he says that he has written a letter to her, but has torn it up and is writing another. It is possible that S. A. T. is quoting from the original letter.
{ 33}. Peter, eighteen months old, 18 November, 1873; Nikolai, two months old, February, 1875; and the daughter born prematurely, November, { 1875}.
{ 34}. T. A. Ergolskii (see note 19), and Pelageya Ilinishna Yushkov, the sister of L. N. T.'s father, died 22, December, 1875. This death particularly affected Tolstoy. He wrote to Countess A. A. Tolstoy: "It is strange, but the death of this old woman of eighty affected me more than any other death.... Not an hour passes without my thinking of her." _Tolstovskii Musei_, Vol. I, pages 262-3.
{ 35}. From Fet's poem: "I repeated: 'When I will....'" Later Fet evidently re-wrote the poem; his last four lines are:
In my hand--what a marvel-- Is your hand. And on the grass--two emeralds. Two glow-worms.
See A. A. Fet, Complete Works, Vol. I, page 427, Petersburg, 1912.
{ 36}. Five poems are known to have been dedicated by Fet to S. A. Tolstoy, see Complete Works, Vol. I, pages 413, 414, and 449.
{ 37}. A few months after his visit to Yasnaya Polyana Turgenev wrote to Fet: "I was very glad to make it up again with Tolstoy, and I spent three pleasant days with him; his whole family is very sympathetic and his wife is a darling." See Fet, _My Reminiscences_, Vol. II, page 355, Moscow, { 1890}.
{ 38}. Wilkie Collins, 1824-1889; his novel _The Woman in White_, was translated into Russian under the same title, Petersburg, 1884.
{ 39}. The house was bought in 1882 in the Khamovnicheskii Pereulok.
{ 40}. An allusion to V. G. Chertkov who became acquainted with Tolstoy in 1883. See P. A. Boulanger, _Tolstoy and Chertkov_, Moscow, 1911; A. M. Khiryakov, "Who is Chertkov?" in _Kievskava Starina_, 1910; P. Biryukov, Biography, Vol. II, pages 471-3, 479-480; V. Mikulich, _Shadows of the Past_, Petersburg, 1914; Ilya Tolstoy, _My Reminiscences_, pages 234-5, 247, 265, 269-275; Countess A. A. Tolstoy, "Reminiscences" in _Tolstovskii Musei_, Vol. I, pages 36-38.