dressed himself again to Arkady; 'yes, yes, I have seen many sights
in my day. And I was thrown into all kinds of society, brought into
contact with all sorts of people! I myself, the man you see before you
now, have felt the pulse of Prince Wittgenstein and of Zhukovsky! They
were in the southern army, in the fourteenth, you understand' (and here
Vassily Ivanovitch pursed his mouth up significantly). 'Well, well, but
my business was on one side; stick to your lancet, and let everything
else go hang! Your grandfather was a very honourable man, a real
soldier.'

'Confess, now, he was rather a blockhead,' remarked Bazarov lazily.

'Ah, Yevgeny, how can you use such an expression! Do consider.... Of
course, General Kirsanov was not one of the ...'

'Come, drop him,' broke in Bazarov; 'I was pleased as I was driving
along here to see your birch copse; it has shot up capitally.'

Vassily Ivanovitch brightened up. 'And you must see what a little
garden I've got now! I planted every tree myself. I've fruit, and
raspberries, and all kinds of medicinal herbs. However clever you young
gentlemen may be, old Paracelsus spoke the holy truth: _in herbis
verbis et lapidibus_.... I've retired from practice, you know, of
course, but two or three times a week it will happen that I'm brought
back to my old work. They come for advice--I can't drive them away.
Sometimes the poor have recourse to me for help. And indeed there are
no doctors here at all. There's one of the neighbours here, a retired
major, only fancy, he doctors the people too. I asked the question,
"Has he studied medicine?" And they told me, "No, he's not studied; he
does it more from philanthropy."... Ha! ha! ha! from philanthropy! What
do you think of that? Ha! ha! ha!'

'Fedka, fill me a pipe!' said Bazarov rudely.

'And there's another doctor here who just got to a patient,' Vassily
Ivanovitch persisted in a kind of desperation, 'when the patient had
gone _ad patres_; the servant didn't let the doctor speak; you're no
longer wanted, he told him. He hadn't expected this, got confused, and
asked, "Why, did your master hiccup before his death?" "Yes." "Did he
hiccup much?" "Yes." "Ah, well, that's all right," and off he set back
again. Ha! ha! ha!'

The old man was alone in his laughter; Arkady forced a smile on his
face. Bazarov simply stretched. The conversation went on in this way
for about an hour; Arkady had time to go to his room, which turned out
to be the a