'But, no,' he interrupted me? 'there are people like me who make good managers! You see,' he went on, screwing his head on one side and sucking his pipe assiduously, 'looking at me, I dare say you think I'm not much... but you, see, I must confess, I've had a very middling education; I wasn't well off. I beg your pardon; I'm an open man, and if you come to that....' He did not complete his sentence, but broke off with a wave of the hand. I began to assure him that he was mistaken, that I was highly delighted to meet him, and so on, and then observed that I should have thought a very thorough education was not indispensable for the good management of property. 'Agreed,' he responded; 'I agree with you. But still, a special sort of disposition's essential! There are some may do anything they like, and it's all right! but I.... Allow me to ask, are you from Petersburg or from Moscow?' 'I'm from Petersburg.' He blew a long coil of smoke from his nostrils. 'And I'm going in to Moscow to be an official.' 'What department do you mean to enter?' 'I don't know; that's as it happens. I'll own to you, I'm afraid of official life; one's under responsibility at once. I've always lived in the country; I'm used to it, you know... but now, there's no help for it... it's through poverty! Oh, poverty, how I hate it!' 'But then you will be living in the capital.' 'In the capital.... Well, I don't know what there is that's pleasant in the capital. We shall see; may be, it's pleasant too.... Though nothing, I fancy, could be better than the country.' 'Then is it really impossible for you to live at your country place?' He gave a sigh. 'Quite impossible. It's, so to say, not my own now.' 'Why, how so?' 'Well, a good fellow there--a neighbour--is in possession... a bill of exchange.' Poor Piotr Petrovitch passed his hand over his face, thought a minute, and shook his head. 'Well?'... I must own, though,' he added after a brief silence, 'I can't blame anybody; it's my own fault. I was fond of cutting a dash, I am fond of cutting a dash, damn my soul!' 'You had a jolly life in the country?' I asked him.