mber of charming original designs. And the main thing is that
such work is very readily taken for fire-screens, albums, lamp-shades,
curtains and other rubbish, and the pay is decent."

"After all, that's a sort of a trade, too," agreed Lichonin, and
stroked his beard in meditation. "But, to confess, here's what I wanted
to do. I wanted to open up for her ... to open up a little cook-shop or
dining room, the very tiniest to start with, of course, but one in
which all the food is cheap, clean and tasty. For it's absolutely all
the same to many students where they dine and what they eat. There are
almost never enough places to go round in the students' dining room.
And so we may succeed, perhaps, in pulling in all our acquaintances and
friends, somehow."

"That's true," said the prince, "but impractical as well; we'll begin
to board on credit. And you know what accurate payers we are. A
practical man, a knave, is needed for such an undertaking; and if a
woman, then one with a pike's teeth; and even then a man must
absolutely stick right at her back. Really, it's not for Lichonin to
stand at the counter and to watch that somebody shouldn't suddenly wine
and dine and slip away."

Lichonin looked straight at him, insolently, but only set his jaws and
let it pass in silence.

Simanovsky began in his measured, incontrovertible tone, toying with
the glasses of his PINCE-NEZ:

"Your intention is splendid, gentlemen, beyond dispute. But have you
turned your attention to a certain shady aspect, so to speak? For to
open a dining room, to start some business--all this in the beginning
demands money, assistance--somebody else's back, so to speak. The money
is not grudged--that is true, I agree with Lichonin; but then, does not
such a beginning of an industrious life, when every step is provided
for--does it not lead to inevitable laxity and negligence, and, in the
very end, to an indifferent disdain for business? Even a child does not
learn to walk until it has flopped down some fifty times. No; if you
really want to help this poor girl, you must give her a chance of
getting on her feet at once, like a toiling being, and not like a
drone. True, there is a great temptation here--the burden of labour,
temporary need; but then, if she will surmount this, she will surmount
the rest as well."

"What, then, according to you, is she to become--a dish-washer?" asked
Soloviev with unbelief.

"Well, yes," calmly retorted Simanovsky. "