The Daughter of the Commandant

My father, Andréj Petróvitch Grineff, after serving in his youth under Count Münich, had retired in 17-- with the rank of senior major. Since that time he had always lived on his estate in the district of Simbirsk, where he married Avdotia, the eldest daughter of a poor gentleman in the neighbourhood. Of the nine children born of this union I alone survived; all my brothers and sisters died young....