Punin cleared his throat. ‘Ah! if one could be settled here, if only for a while! Or else one may wander and wander far, and find not a place to rest one’s head; the disquieting alarms of life are unceasing, the soul is confounded....’ ‘Tell me,’ I interrupted: ‘are you of the clerical profession?’ Punin turned to me and half closed his eyelids. ‘And what may be the cause of that question, gentle youth?’ ‘Why, you talk so--well, as they read in church.’ ‘Because I use the old scriptural forms of expression? But that ought not to surprise you. Admitting that in ordinary conversation such forms of expression are not always in place; but when one soars on the wings of inspiration, at once the language too grows more exalted. Surely your teacher--the professor of Russian literature--you do have lessons in that, I suppose?--surely he teaches you that, doesn’t he?’ ‘No, he doesn’t,’ I responded. ‘When we stay in the country I have no teacher. In Moscow I have a great many teachers.’ ‘And will you be staying long in the country?’ ‘Two months, not longer; grandmother says that I’m spoilt in the country, though I have a governess even here.’ ‘A French governess?’ ‘Yes.’ Punin scratched behind his ear. ‘A mamselle, that’s to say?’ ‘Yes; she’s called Mademoiselle Friquet.’ I suddenly felt it disgraceful for me, a boy of twelve, to have not a tutor, but a governess, like a little girl! ‘But I don’t mind her,’ I added contemptuously. ‘What do I care!’ Punin shook his head. ‘Ah, you gentlefolk, you gentlefolk! you’re too fond of foreigners! You have turned away from what is Russian,--towards all that’s strange. You’ve turned your hearts to those that come from foreign parts....’ ‘Hullo! Are you talking in verse?’ I asked. ‘Well, and why not? I can do that always, as much as you please; for it comes natural to me....’ But at that very instant there sounded in the garden behind us a loud and shrill whistle. My new acquaintance hurriedly got up from the bench. ‘Good-bye, little sir; that’s my friend calling me, looking for me.... What has he to tell me? Good-bye--excuse me....’ He plunged into the bushes and vanished, while I sat on some time longer on the seat. I felt perplexity and another feeling, rather an agreeable one ... I had never met nor spoken to any one like this before. Gradually I fell to dreaming, but recollected my mythology and sauntered towards the house. * * * * * At home, I learned that my grandmother had arranged to take Baburin; he had been assigned a small room in the servants’ quarters, overlooking the stable-yard. He had at once settled in there with his friend.