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years past, and had once already, about a year previously,
ventured, trembling with fear and the delicacy of his senti-
ments, to offer her most respectfully his hand in marriage.
But she refused him resolutely, feeling that to accept him
would be an act of treachery to her son, though Dardanelov
had, to judge from certain mysterious symptoms, reason
for believing that he was not an object of aversion to the
charming but too chaste and tender-hearted widow. Kolya’s
mad prank seemed to have broken the ice, and Dardanelov
was rewarded for his intercession by a suggestion of hope.
The suggestion, it is true, was a faint one, but then Dar-
danelov was such a paragon of purity and delicacy that it
was enough for the time being to make him perfectly hap-
py. He was fond of the boy, though he would have felt it
beneath him to try and win him over, and was severe and
strict with him in class. Kolya, too, kept him at a respectful
distance. He learned his lessons perfectly; he was second
in his class, was reserved with Dardanelov, and the whole
class firmly believed that Kolya was so good at universal
history that he could ‘beat’ even Dardanelov. Kolya did in-
deed ask him the question, ‘Who founded Troy?’ to which
Dardanelov had made a very vague reply, referring to the
movements and migrations of races, to the remoteness of
the period, to the mythical legends. But the question, ‘Who
had founded Troy?’ that is, what individuals, he could not
answer, and even for some reason regarded the question as
idle and frivolous. But the boys remained convinced that
Dardanelov did not know who founded Troy. Kolya had
read of the founders of Troy in Smaragdov, whose history

0 The Brothers Karamazov