my sock!' he would say to them, and I
say, find me the word 'sir!' The word 'sir' is lost, and with it every
sense of respect towards rank!"

Madame Sipiagina informed Kollomietzev that she would not help him in
the search.

Emboldened by the success of his speech at dinner, Sipiagin delivered
two others, in which he let fly various statesmanlike reflections about
indispensable measures and various words--des mots--not so much witty
as weighty, which he had especially prepared for St. Petersburg. He even
repeated one of these words, saying beforehand, "If you will allow
the expression." Above all, he declared that a certain minister had
an "idle, unconcentrated mind," and was given "to dreaming." And not
forgetting that one of his listener's was a man of the people, he lost
no opportunity in trying to show that he too was a Russian through
and through, and steeped in the very root of the national life! For
instance, to Kollomietzev's remark that the rain might interfere with
the haymaking, he replied, "If the hay is black, then the buckwheat will
be white;" then he made use of various proverbs like: "A store without
a master is an orphan," "Look before you leap," "When there's bread then
there's economy," "If the birch leaves are as big as farthings by St.
Yegor's day, the dough can be put into tubs by the feast of Our Lady
of Kazan." He sometimes went wrong, however, and would get his proverbs
very much mixed; but the society in which these little slips occurred
did not even suspect that notre bon Russe had made a mistake, and,
thanks to Prince Kovrishkin, it had got used to such little blunders.
Sipiagin pronounced all these proverbs in a peculiarly powerful, gruff
voice--d'une voix rustique. Similar sayings let loose at the proper time
and place in St. Petersburg would cause influential high-society ladies
to exclaim, "Comme il connait bien les moeurs de notre people!" and
great statesmen would add, "Les moeurs et les besoins!"

Valentina Mihailovna fussed about Solomin as much as she could, but her
failure to arouse him disheartened her. On passing Kollomietzev she said
involuntarily, in an undertone: "Mon Dieu, que je me sens fatiguee!" to
which he replied with an ironical bow: "Tu l'as voulu, George Daudin!"

At last, after the usual outburst of politeness and amiability, which
appears on the faces of a bored assembly on the point of breaking up,
after sudden handshakings and friendly smiles, the weary guests a