The general explained in detail to the lawyer.  He had been married twice, and had three children, a son and a daughter from his first marriage, who had long ago reached adultship, and a nine-year-old daughter from his second marriage.  His second wife and daughter he expected every day; they were abroad, but would soon return.  His elder daughter would also probably come.

The lawyer was not acquainted with Nazimoff’s family; indeed he had never before seen the general, though, like all Russia, he knew of him by repute.  But judging from the tone of contempt or of pity with which he spoke of his second wife or her daughter, the lawyer guessed at once that the general’s home life was not happy.  The further explanations of the sick man convinced him of this.  A new will was to be drawn up, directly contrary to the will signed six years before, which bequeathed to his second wife, Olga Vseslavovna, unlimited authority over their little daughter, and her husband’s entire property.  In the first will he had left nearly everything, with the exception of the family estate, which he did not feel justified in taking from his son, to his second wife and her daughter.  Now he wished to restore to his elder children the rights which he had deprived them of, and especially to his eldest daughter, Anna Iurievna Borissova, who was not even mentioned in the first will.  In the new will, with the exception of the seventh part, the widow’s share, he divided the whole of his land and capital between his children equally; and he further appointed a strict guardianship over the property of his little daughter, Olga Iurievna.

The will was duly arranged, drawn up and witnessed, and after the three witnesses had signed it, it was left, by the general’s wish, in his own keeping.

“I will send it to you to take care of,” he said to the lawyer.  “It will be safer in your hands than here, in my temporary quarters.  But first I wish to read it to my wife, and ... to my eldest daughter ... if she arrives in time.”

The lawyer and the priest, who was one of the witnesses, were already preparing to take leave of the general, when voices and steps were heard in the corridor; a footman’s head appeared through the door, calling the doctor hurriedly forth.  It appeared that the general’s lady had arrived suddenly, without letting anyone know by telegram that she was coming.

The doctor hastily slipped out of the room; he feared the result of emotion on the sick man, and wished to warn the general’s wife of his grave danger, but the sick man noticed the move, and it was impossible to guard him against disturbance.

“What is going on there?” he asked.  “What are you mumbling about, Edouard Vicentevitch?  Tell me what is the matter?  Is it my daughter?”

“Your excellency, I beg of you to take care of yourself!” the doctor was beginning, evidently quite familiar with the general’s family affairs, and therefore dreading the meeting of husband and wife.  “It is not Anna Iurievna....”