ailiffs. When I see a bailiff in my house I turn pale and tremble,
and even have a twitching in the calves of my legs. Do you know
Rogozhin refused to honour my note?"

The prince did not, as a rule, like to complain of his straitened
circumstances; where poverty was concerned he was reserved and
exceedingly proud and sensitive, and so this announcement surprised
me. He stared a long time at the yellow clearing, warmed by the
sun, watched a long string of cranes float in the azure sky, and
turned facing me.

"And by the sixth of September I must have the money ready for the
bank . . . the interest for my estate," he said aloud, by now
regardless of the coachman. "And where am I to get it? Altogether,
old man, I am in a tight fix! An awfully tight fix!"

The prince examined the cock of his gun, blew on it for some reason,
and began looking for the cranes which by now were out of sight.

"Sergey Ivanitch," I asked, after a minute's silence, "imagine if
they sell your Shatilovka, what will you do?"

"I? I don't know! Shatilovka can't be saved, that's clear as daylight,
but I cannot imagine such a calamity. I can't imagine myself without
my daily bread secure. What can I do? I have had hardly any education;
I have not tried working yet; for government service it is late to
begin, . . . Besides, where could I serve? Where could I be of use?
Admitting that no great cleverness is needed for serving in our
Zemstvo, for example, yet I suffer from . . . the devil knows what,
a sort of faintheartedness, I haven't a ha'p'orth of pluck. If I
went into the Service I should always feel I was not in my right
place. I am not an idealist; I am not a Utopian; I haven't any
special principles; but am simply, I suppose, stupid and thoroughly
incompetent, a neurotic and a coward. Altogether not like other
people. All other people are like other people, only I seem to be
something . . . a poor thing. . . . I met Naryagin last Wednesday
--you know him?--drunken, slovenly . . . doesn't pay his debts,
stupid" (the prince frowned and tossed his head) . . . "a horrible
person! He said to me, staggering: 'I'm being balloted for as a
justice of the peace!' Of course, they won't elect him, but, you
see, he believes he is fit to be a justice of the peace and considers
that position within his capacity. He has boldness and self-confidence.
I went to see our investigating magistrate too. The man gets two
hundred and fifty roubles a month, and does