y friendly relations existed between Solomin and his
workpeople. They respected him as a superior, treated him as one of
themselves, and considered him to be very learned. "Whatever Vassily
Fedotitch says," they declared, "is sacred! Because he has learned
everything there is to be learned, and there isn't an Englishman who can
get around him!" And in fact, a certain well-known English manufacturer
had once visited the factory, but whether it was that Solomin could
speak to him in his own tongue or that he was really impressed by his
knowledge is uncertain; he had laughed, slapped him on the shoulder, and
invited him to come to Liverpool with him, saying to the workmen, in his
broken Russian, "Oh, he's all right, your man here!" At which the men
laughed a great deal, not without a touch of pride. "So that's what he
is! Our man!"

And he really was theirs and one of them. Early the next morning his
favourite Pavel woke him, prepared his things for washing, told him
various news, and asked him various questions. They partook of some
tea together hastily, after which Solomin put on his grey, greasy
working-jacket and set out for the factory; and his life began to go
round again like some huge flywheel.

But the thread had to be broken again. Five days after Solomin's return
home there drove into the courtyard a smart little phaeton, harnessed
to four splendid horses and a footman in pale green livery, whom Pavel
conducted to the little wing, where he solemnly handed Solomin a letter
sealed with an armorial crest, from "His Excellency Boris Andraevitch
Sipiagin." In this letter, which exhaled an odour, not of perfume, but
of some extraordinarily respectable English smell and was written in
the third person, not by a secretary, but by the gentleman himself,
the cultured owner of the village Arjanov, he begged to be excused for
addressing himself to a man with whom he had not the honour of being
personally acquainted, but of whom he, Sipiagin, had heard so many
flattering accounts, and ventured to invite Mr. Solomin to come and
see him at his house, as he very much wanted to ask his valuable advice
about a manufacturing enterprise of some importance he had embarked
upon. In the hope that Mr. Solomin would be kind enough to come, he,
Sipiagin, had sent him his carriage, but in the event of his being
unable to do so on that day, would he be kind enough to choose any other
day that might be convenient for him and the same carri