Note 110 — Chapter 7 The End of my Studies—The Schiller Period—Early Youth and Bohemianism—Saint-Simonism and N. Polevoy

Among the papers sent me from Moscow, I found a note in which I informed my cousin who was in the country that I had taken my degree. ‘The examination is over, and I am a graduate! You cannot imagine the sweet feeling of freedom after four years of work. Did you think of me on Thursday? It was a stifling day, and the torture lasted from nine in the morning till nine in the evening.’ (26th June 1833.) I fancy I added two hours for effect or to round off the sentence. But for all my pleasure, my vanity was stung by another student’s winning the gold medal. In a second letter of the 6th July, I find: ‘To-day was the prizegiving, but I was not there. I did not care to be second at the giving of the medals.’