No, the real reason was that Sokolow wanted to do some spite work to his relatives. They were already counting on his death, had already figured out what they would inherit from him, would in fact have liked to poison him. Now let them wail! He would marry this girl who was young and healthy, marry her and have children and the whole chorus of loving relatives would have to go away empty handed. When this clever idea entered his head, he acted with his usual abruptness. Nobody should know beforehand. He simply wrote a letter to Nelidowa, without any explanations or previous correspondence, to the effect that he had heard from his old friend that she was a marriageable person, that enclosed were 5,000 rubles for her dowry, that the ring he was sending her had been worn by his mother, that the carriage sent to her door was hers, and that he expected her without delay. But he advised her to travel by easy stages, so that she should not be tired at the wedding ceremonies, which would take place as soon as she arrived in Moscow. There was the handsome carriage with a huge coachman and two footmen at her door, there was the 5,000 rubles-Nelidowa had never in her life seen so much money-there was the ring with a ruby, thick as a pigeon's egg, there was the confirmation of the Military Commander that all this was his work. Well, Nelidowa jumped into the carriage and did not travel in easy stages but in such haste that the coachman often had to change the poor horses. Nelidowa didn't get tired at all. She was so excited that she did not feel the lack of sleep or food. She was in a trance.

She did not even lose this state of excitement when she saw the bridegroom. No poet could have made him into a desirable lover. He was in his middle fifties, short, brutal and bald, with a large belly which protruded from underneath his hairy chest. Only when Nelidowa found herself with him in bed, did she realize the disgusting reality-but that must be told later on. This was the reason why the young Princess plunged herself with vigor into all and every kind of amusement and social debauchery.