herrings, lime, flour, beef or lumber. In his own fashion he
was pious. If time permitted, he would with assiduity visit the
synagogue of Fridays. The Day of Atonement, Passover, and the Feast of
the Tabernacles were invariably and reverently observed by him
everywhere wherever fate might have cast him. His mother, a little old
woman, and a hunch-backed sister, were left to him in Odessa, and he
undeviatingly sent them now large, now small sums of money, not
regularly but pretty frequently, from all towns from Kursk to Odessa
and from Warsaw to Samara. Considerable savings of money had already
accumulated to him in the Credit Lyonnaise, and he gradually increased
them, never touching the interest. But to greed or avarice he was
almost a stranger. He was attracted to the business rather by its tang,
risk and a professional self-conceit. To the women he was perfectly
indifferent, although he understood and could value them, and in this
respect resembled a good chef, who together with a fine understanding
of the business, suffers from a chronic absence of appetite. To induce,
to entice a woman, to compel her to do all that he wanted, did not
require any efforts on his part; they came of themselves to his call
and became in his hands passive, obedient and yielding. In his
treatment of them a certain firm, unshakable, self-assured aplomb had
been worked out, to which they submitted just as a refractory horse
submits instinctively to the voice, glance, stroking of an experienced
horseman.

He drank very moderately, and without company never drank. Toward
eating he was altogether indifferent. But, of course, as with every
man, he had a little weakness of his own: he was inordinately fond of
dress and spent no little money on his toilet. Modish collars of all
possible fashions, cravats, diamond cuff links, watch charms, the
underwear of a dandy, and chic footwear constituted his main
distractions.

From the depot he went straight to The Hermitage. The hotel porters, in
blue blouses and uniform caps, carried his things into the vestibule.
Following them, he too entered, arm in arm with his wife; both smartly
attired, imposing, but he just simply magnificent, in his wide,
bell-shaped English overcoat, in a new broad-brimmed panama, holding
negligently in his hand a small cane with a silver handle in the form
of a naked woman.

"You ain't supposed to be here without a permit for your residence,"
said an enormous, stout doorke