“_L’arjan!_” he remarked profoundly, to forewarn his master of the meaning of this visitation. Following him, the master of the house in a new Circassian coat with an officer’s stripes on the shoulders and with polished boots (quite exceptional among Cossacks) entered the room, swaying from side to side, and congratulated his lodger on his safe arrival. The cornet, Elias Vasílich, was an _educated_ Cossack. He had been to Russia proper, was a regimental schoolteacher, and above all he was noble. He wished to appear noble, but one could not help feeling beneath his grotesque pretence of polish, his affectation, his self-confidence, and his absurd way of speaking, he was just the same as Daddy Eróshka. This could also be clearly seen by his sunburnt face and his hands and his red nose. Olénin asked him to sit down. “Good morning, Father Elias Vasílich,” said Eróshka, rising with (or so it seemed to Olénin) an ironically low bow. “Good morning. Daddy. So you’re here already,” said the cornet, with a careless nod. The cornet was a man of about forty, with a grey pointed beard, skinny and lean, but handsome and very fresh-looking for his age. Having come to see Olénin he was evidently afraid of being taken for an ordinary Cossack, and wanted to let Olénin feel his importance from the first. “That’s our Egyptian Nimrod,” he remarked, addressing Olénin and pointing to the old man with a self-satisfied smile. “A mighty hunter before the Lord! He’s our foremost man on every hand. You’ve already been pleased to get acquainted with him.” Daddy Eróshka gazed at his feet in their shoes of wet raw hide and shook his head thoughtfully at the cornet’s ability and learning, and muttered to himself: “Gyptian Nimvrod! What things he invents!” “Yes, you see we mean to go hunting,” answered Olénin. “Yes, sir, exactly,” said the cornet, “but I have a small business with you.” “What do you want?” “Seeing that you are a gentleman,” began the cornet, “and as I may understand myself to be in the rank of an officer too, and therefore we may always progressively negotiate, as gentlemen do.” (He stopped and looked with a smile at Olénin and at the old man.) “But if you have the desire with my consent, then, as my wife is a foolish woman of our class, she could not quite comprehend your words of yesterday’s date. Therefore my quarters might be let for six rubles to the Regimental Adjutant, without the stables; but I can always avert that from myself free of charge. But, as you desire, therefore I, being myself of an officer’s rank, can come to an agreement with you in everything personally, as an inhabitant of this district, not according to our customs, but can maintain the conditions in every way....” “Speaks clearly!” muttered the old man.