Next day, when he went to dine, he found Vaskovski and Bukatski at the restaurant. After a while Mashko also came in, with his arrogant, freckled face and long side whiskers, a monocle on his eye, and wearing a white waistcoat. After the greeting, all began to inquire of Pan Stanislav touching his journey, for they knew partly why the ladies had insisted on his personal visit, and, besides, they knew Marynia through Pani Emilia. After they had heard the narrative, Bukatski, transparent as Sevres porcelain, said with that phlegm special to him,-- "It is war, then? That is a young lady who acts on the nerves, and now would be the time to strike for her. A woman will accept more readily the arm offered on a stony path than on a smooth road." "Then offer an arm to her," said Pan Stanislav, with a certain impatience. "See thou, my beloved, there are three hindrances. First, Pani Emilia acts on my nerves still more; second, I have a pain in my neck every morning, and in the back of my head, which indicates brain disease; third, I am naked." "Thou naked?" "At least now. I have bought a number of Falks, all _avant la lettre_. I have plucked myself for a month, and if I receive from Italy a certain Massaccio, for which I have been bargaining, I shall ruin myself for a year." Vaskovski, who from his features, or rather from the freckles on his face, was somewhat like Mashko, though much older, and with a face full of sweetness, fixed his blue eyes on Bukatski, and said,-- "And that too is a disease of the age,--collecting and collecting on all sides!" "Oh, ho! there will be a dispute," remarked Mashko. "We have nothing better to do," said Pan Stanislav. And Bukatski took up the gauntlet. "What have you against collecting?" "Nothing," answered Vaskovski. "It is a kind of old-womanish method of loving art, worthy of our age. Do you not think there is something decrepit about it? To my thinking, it is very characteristic. Once people bore within them enthusiasm for high art: they loved it where it was, in museums, in churches; to-day they take it to their own private cabinets. Long ago people ended with collecting; to-day they begin with it, and begin at oddities: I am not talking at Bukatski; but to-day the youngest boy, if he has a little money, will begin to collect--and what? Not objects of art, but its oddities, or in every case its trifles. You see, my dear friend, it has seemed to me always that love and amateurism are two different things; and I insist that a great amateur of women, for example, is not a man capable of lofty feeling." "Perhaps so. There is something in that," said Pan Stanislav. "How can this concern me?" inquired Mashko, passing his fingers through his English side whiskers. "It contains, to begin with, the decree of an ancient pedagogue about modern times."