The Permanent Husband Chapter 1

In which we observe the gentleman Velchaninoff, detained by a vexing legal affair in the dusty heat of St. Petersburg, wrestling with his restless nights and the gnawing spectres of his past, which bring upon him a new and keenly felt vanity. Through his solitary reflections, the shadows of youthful follies and forgotten wrongs are illuminated with a harsh new light, while his spirit vacillates between fleeing to distant climes and confronting the relentless torment of conscience and circumstance in the city he knows too well.