“Ardalyon Mikhailovich Tikhomirov was then still quite a young man, despite the fact that he was already twenty-four years old; he was still a boy in appearance and soul. The life of the capital, into which he had recently plunged, having arrived from a distant province, accompanied by the blessing of his own mother, a poor widow-official, who had collected the last crumbs for the trip of her only son to the capital for a career, had not yet had time to impose on him its mark of premature maturity. Having only completed a course at the gymnasium, he could not count on much, and with the help of several people who knew his late father, he received a position as a civilian scribe in one of the countless capital offices...”