‘I thought he was really going to give me some practical advice. But what can one expect from him! An artist, a man of no principles----’ ‘No principles! By the way, I’m told your favourite Mr. Kurnatovsky, the man of principle, cleaned you out of a hundred roubles last night. That was hardly delicate, you must own now.’ ‘What of it? We were playing high. Of course, I might expect--but they understand so little how to appreciate him in this house----’ ‘That he thought: get what I can!’ put in Shubin: ‘whether he’s to be my father-in-law or not, is still on the knees of the gods, but a hundred roubles is worth something to a man who doesn’t take bribes.’ ‘Father-in-law! How the devil am I his father-in-law? _Vous rêvez, mon cher_. Of course, any other girl would be delighted with such a suitor. Only consider: a man of spirit and intellect, who has gained a position in the world, served in two provinces----’ ‘Led the governor in one of them by the nose,’ remarked Shubin. ‘Very likely. To be sure, that’s how it should be. Practical, a business man----’ ‘And a capital hand at cards,’ Shubin remarked again. ‘To be sure, and a capital hand at cards. But Elena Nikolaevna.... Is there any understanding her? I should be glad to know if there is any one who would undertake to make out what it is she wants. One day she’s cheerful, another she’s dull; all of a sudden she’s so thin there’s no looking at her, and then suddenly she’s well again, and all without any apparent reason----’ A disagreeable-looking man-servant came in with a cup of coffee, cream and sugar on a tray. ‘The father is pleased with a suitor,’ pursued Nikolai Artemyevitch, breaking off a lump of sugar; ‘but what is that to the daughter! That was all very well in the old patriarchal days, but now we have changed all that. _Nous avons changé tout ça_. Nowadays a young girl talks to any one she thinks fit, reads what she thinks fit; she goes about Moscow alone without a groom or a maid, just as in Paris; and all that is permitted. The other day I asked, “Where is Elena Nikolaevna?” I’m told she has gone out. Where? No one knows. Is that--the proper thing?’ ‘Take your coffee, and let the man go,’ said Shubin. ‘You say yourself that one ought not _devant les domestiques_’ he added in an undertone. The servant gave Shubin a dubious look, while Nikolai Artemyevitch took the cup of coffee, added some cream, and seized some ten lumps of sugar. ‘I was just going to say when the servant came in,’ he began, ‘that I count for nothing in this house. That’s the long and short of the matter. For nowadays every one judges from appearances; one man’s an empty-headed fool, but gives himself airs of importance, and he’s respected; while another, very likely, has talents which might--which might gain him great distinction, but through modesty----’ ‘Aren’t you a born statesman?’ asked Shubin in a jeering voice.