eper, looking down upon him from above
and preserving on his face a sleepy and immovably-frigid expression.

"Ach, Zachar! Again 'you ain't supposed to!'" merrily exclaimed
Horizon, and patted the giant on his shoulder. "What does it mean, 'you
ain't supposed to'? Every time you shove this same 'you ain't supposed
to' at me. I must be here for three days in all. Soon as I conclude the
rent agreement with Count Ipatiev, right away I go away. God be with
you! Live even all by yourself in all your rooms. But you just give a
look, Zachar, what a toy I brought you from Odessa! You'll be just
tickled with it!"

With a careful, deft, accustomed movement he thrust a gold piece into
the doorkeeper's hand, who was already holding it behind his back,
ready and folded in the form of a little boat.

The first thing that Horizon did upon installing himself in the large,
spacious room with an alcove, was to put out into the corridor at the
door of the room six pairs of magnificent shoes, saying to the bell-hop
who ran up in answer to the bell:

"Immediately all should be cleaned! So it should shine like a mirror!
They call you Timothy, I think? Then you should know me--if you work by
me it will never go for nothing. So it should shine like a mirror!"

CHAPTER IV.

Horizon lived at the Hotel Hermitage for not more than three days and
nights, and during this time he managed to see some three hundred
people. His arrival seemed to enliven the big, gay port city. To him
came the keepers of employment offices for servants, the proprietresses
of cheap hotels, and old, experienced go-betweens, grown gray in the
trade in women. Not so much out of an interest in booty as out of
professional pride, Horizon tried, at all costs, to bargain for as much
profit as possible, to buy a woman as cheaply as possible. Of course,
to receive ten, fifteen roubles more was not the reason for him, but
the mere thought that competitor Yampolsky would receive at the sale
more than he brought him into a frenzy.

After his arrival, the next day, he set off to Mezer the photographer,
taking with him the straw-like girl Bella, and had pictures taken in
various poses together with her; at which for every negative he
received three roubles, while he gave the woman a rouble. After that he
rode off to Barsukova.

This was a woman, or, speaking more correctly, a retired wench, whose
like can be found only in the south of Russia; neither a Pole nor a
Litt