uaintance. When spoken to, he answered curtly and decisively, and
began to look out of the car window obstinately.

Yet it seemed to me that the solitude weighed upon him. He seemed to
perceive that I understood this, and when our eyes met, as happened
frequently, since we were sitting almost opposite each other, he turned
away his head, and avoided conversation with me as much as with the
others. At nightfall, during a stop at a large station, the gentleman
with the fine baggage--a lawyer, as I have since learned--got out with
his companion to drink some tea at the restaurant. During their absence
several new travellers entered the car, among whom was a tall old man,
shaven and wrinkled, evidently a merchant, wearing a large heavily-lined
cloak and a big cap. This merchant sat down opposite the empty seats of
the lawyer and his companion, and straightway entered into conversation
with a young man who seemed like an employee in some commercial house,
and who had likewise just boarded the train. At first the clerk had
remarked that the seat opposite was occupied, and the old man had
answered that he should get out at the first station. Thus their
conversation started.

I was sitting not far from these two travellers, and, as the train was
not in motion, I could catch bits of their conversation when others were
not talking.

They talked first of the prices of goods and the condition of business;
they referred to a person whom they both knew; then they plunged into
the fair at Nijni Novgorod. The clerk boasted of knowing people who were
leading a gay life there, but the old man did not allow him to continue,
and, interrupting him, began to describe the festivities of the previous
year at Kounavino, in which he had taken part. He was evidently proud
of these recollections, and, probably thinking that this would detract
nothing from the gravity which his face and manners expressed, he
related with pride how, when drunk, he had fired, at Kounavino, such a
broadside that he could describe it only in the other's ear.

The clerk began to laugh noisily. The old man laughed too, showing two
long yellow teeth. Their conversation not interesting me, I left the car
to stretch my legs. At the door I met the lawyer and his lady.

"You have no more time," the lawyer said to me. "The second bell is
about to ring."

Indeed I had scarcely reached the rear of the train when the bell
sounded. As I entered the car again, the lawyer was