o my father.
But he has gone quite off the track--I think he's a republican. We
refuse to have anything to do with him. Il est impossible. Goodbye, I
see my carriage is waiting."

The prince separated.

The next day Sipiagin noticed Nejdanov's advertisement in the paper and
went to see him.

"My name is Sipiagin," he repeated, as he sat in front of Nejdanov,
surveying him with a dignified air. "I see by your advertisement that
you are looking for a post, and I should like to know if you would be
willing to come to me. I am married and have a boy of eight, a very
intelligent child, I may say. We usually spend the summer and autumn in
the country, in the province of S., about five miles from the town of
that name. I should like you to come to us for the vacation to teach
my boy Russian history and grammar. I think those were the subjects you
mentioned in your advertisement. I think you will get on with us all
right, and I am sure you will like the neighbourhood. We have a large
house and garden, the air is excellent, and there is a river close
by. Well, would you like to come? We shall only have to come to terms,
although I do not think," he added, with a slight grimace, "that there
will be any difficulty on that point between us."

Nejdanov watched Sipiagin all the time he was speaking. He gazed at his
small head, bent a little to one side, his low, narrow, but intelligent
forehead, his fine Roman nose, pleasant eyes, straight lips, out of
which his words flowed graciously; he gazed at his drooping whiskers,
kept in the English fashion, gazed and wondered. "What does it all
mean?" he asked himself. "Why has this man come to seek me out? This
aristocrat and I! What have we in common? What does he see in me?"

He was so lost in thought that he did not open his lips when Sipiagin,
having finished speaking, evidently awaited an answer. Sipiagin cast a
look into the corner where Paklin sat, also watching him. "Perhaps the
presence of a third person prevents him from saying what he would
like," flashed across Sipiagin's mind. He raised his eyebrows, as if in
submission to the strangeness of the surroundings he had come to of his
own accord, and repeated his question a second time.

Nejdanov started.

"Of course," he began hurriedly, "I should like to...with pleasure
.... only I must confess... I am rather surprised... having no
recommendations... and the views I expressed at the theatre were more
calculated to prejudi