He opened the letter and began to read it half aloud, making his own observations upon it in the course of his reading.
“‘Esteemed Sir, Ivan Karlovitch, I hope that your Excellency’—Why all this ceremony? Pshaw! Isn’t he ashamed of himself? To be sure, discipline before everything, but is that the way to write to an old comrade?—‘Your Excellency has not forgotten’—Hm!—‘and—when—with the late Field Marshal Mün—in the campaign—also Caroline’—Ha, brother! he still remembers our old pranks, then?—‘Now to business.—I send you my young hopeful’—Hm!—‘Hold him with hedgehog mittens.’—What are hedgehog mittens? That must be a Russian proverb.—What does ‘hold him with hedgehog mittens’ mean?” he repeated, turning to me.
“It means,” I replied, looking as innocent as I possibly could, “to treat a person kindly, not to be too severe, and to allow as much liberty as possible.”
“Hm! I understand—‘And do not give him too much liberty.’—No, it is evident that ‘hedgehog mittens’ does not mean that.—‘Enclosed you will find his passport.’—Where is it then? Ah! here it is.—‘Enrol him in the Semenovsky Regiment.’—Very well, very well, everything shall be attended to.—‘Allow me without ceremony to embrace you as an old comrade and friend.’—Ah! at last he has got to it.—‘Etcetera, etcetera.’—‘Well, my little father,’ said he, finishing the reading of the letter, and putting my passport on one side, ‘everything shall be arranged; you shall be an officer in the Regiment, and so that you may lose no time, start to-morrow for the fortress of Bailogorsk, where you will be under the command of Captain Mironoff, a good and honest man. There you will learn real service, and be taught what real discipline is. Orenburg is not the place for you, there is nothing for you to do there; amusements are injurious to a young man. Favour me with your company at dinner to-day.”
“This is getting worse and worse,” I thought to myself. “Of what use will it be to me to have been a sergeant in the Guards almost from my mother’s womb! Whither has it led me? To the Regiment, and to a dreary fortress on the borders of the Kirghis-Kaisaks steppes!”
I dined with Andrei Karlovitch, in company with his old adjutant. A strict German economy ruled his table, and I believe that the fear of being obliged to entertain an additional guest now and again was partly the cause of my being so promptly banished to the garrison.
The next day I took leave of the general, and set out for the place of my destination.
[1] Savelitch uses the word here in its old meaning of fellow-sponsor.
[2] A tenth of a penny.