one
to help me and the sooner the better. Would he take the work or not?
He's been recommended to me...."

"Oh, most certainly he will. _Et vous ferez un bienfait_...."

"I'm not doing it as a _bienfait_. I need some one to help me."

"I know Shatov pretty well," I said, "and if you will trust me with a
message to him I'll go to him this minute."

"Tell him to come to me at twelve o'clock to-morrow morning. Capital!
Thank you. Mavriky Nikolaevitch, are you ready?"

They went away. I ran at once, of course, to Shatov.

_"Mon ami!"_ said Stepan Trofimovitch, overtaking me on the steps. "Be
sure to be at my lodging at ten or eleven o'clock when I come back. Oh,
I've acted very wrongly in my conduct to you and to every one."

VIII

I did not find Shatov at home. I ran round again, two hours later. He
was still out. At last, at eight o'clock I went to him again, meaning
to leave a note if I did not find him; again I failed to find him. His
lodging was shut up, and he lived alone without a servant of any sort.
I did think of knocking at Captain Lebyadkin's down below to ask about
Shatov; but it was all shut up below, too, and there was no sound or
light as though the place were empty. I passed by Lebyadkin's door with
curiosity, remembering the stories I had heard that day. Finally, I made
up my mind to come very early next morning. To tell the truth I did not
put much confidence in the effect of a note. Shatov might take no notice
of it; he was so obstinate and shy. Cursing my want of success, I was
going out of the gate when all at once I stumbled on Mr. Kirillov.
He was going into the house and he recognised me first. As he began
questioning me of himself, I told him how things were, and that I had a
note.

"Let us go in," said he, "I will do everything."

I remembered that Liputin had told us he had taken the wooden lodge in
the yard that morning. In the lodge, which was too large for him, a deaf
old woman who waited upon him was living too. The owner of the house had
moved into a new house in another street, where he kept a restaurant,
and this old woman, a relation of his, I believe, was left behind to
look after everything in the old house. The rooms in the lodge were
fairly clean, though the wall-papers were dirty. In the one we went into
the furniture was of different sorts, picked up here and there, and all
utterly worthless. There were two card-tables, a chest of drawers made
of elder, a big deal tab