hem to thrash the boys and to jeer at
the buyers, and was violently angry when the clerks gleefully
despatched to the provinces worthless shop-soiled goods as though
they were new and fashionable. Now he was the chief person in the
warehouse, but still, as before, he did not know how large his
fortune was, whether his business was doing well, how much the
senior clerks were paid, and so on. Potchatkin and Makeitchev looked
upon him as young and inexperienced, concealed a great deal from
him, and whispered mysteriously every evening with his blind old
father.

It somehow happened at the beginning of June that Laptev went into
the Bubnovsky restaurant with Potchatkin to talk business with him
over lunch. Potchatkin had been with the Laptevs a long while, and
had entered their service at eight years old. He seemed to belong
to them--they trusted him fully; and when on leaving the warehouse
he gathered up all the takings from the till and thrust them into
his pocket, it never aroused the slightest suspicion. He was the
head man in the business and in the house, and also in the church,
where he performed the duties of churchwarden in place of his old
master. He was nicknamed Malyuta Skuratov on account of his cruel
treatment of the boys and clerks under him.

When they went into the restaurant he nodded to a waiter and said:

"Bring us, my lad, half a bodkin and twenty-four unsavouries."

After a brief pause the waiter brought on a tray half a bottle of
vodka and some plates of various kinds of savouries.

"Look here, my good fellow," said Potchatkin. "Give us a plateful
of the source of all slander and evil-speaking, with mashed potatoes."

The waiter did not understand; he was puzzled, and would have said
something, but Potchatkin looked at him sternly and said:

"Except."

The waiter thought intently, then went to consult with his colleagues,
and in the end guessing what was meant, brought a plateful of tongue.
When they had drunk a couple of glasses and had had lunch, Laptev
asked:

"Tell me, Ivan Vassilitch, is it true that our business has been
dropping off for the last year?"

"Not a bit of it."

"Tell me frankly and honestly what income we have been making and
are making, and what our profits are. We can't go on in the dark.
We had a balancing of the accounts at the warehouse lately, but,
excuse me, I don't believe in it; you think fit to conceal something
from me and only tell the truth to my father.