d
Petroff Stepanoff. He found them pleasant young men. He was, they told
him, the first Englishman they had met, and asked many questions about
his country. He met them several times afterwards, and one day they
asked him if he would come up to their room.

"It is a poor place," one said laughing. "But you know most of us
students are poor, and have to live as best we can."

"It makes no odds to me," Godfrey said. "It was a pretty bare place I
had when I was at school. I shall be very glad to come up."

The room which the students shared was a large one, at the top of a
house in a narrow street. It was simply furnished enough, containing but
two beds, a deal table, four chairs, and the indispensable stove, which
kept the room warm and comfortable.

"We are in funds just at present," Akim said. "Petroff has had a
remittance, and so you find the stove well alight, which is not always
the case."

"But how do you manage to exist without a fire?"

"We don't trouble the room much then," Petroff said. "We walk about
till we are dead tired out, and then come up and sleep in one bed
together for warmth, and heap all the coverings from the other bed over
us. Oh, we get on very well! Food is cheap here if you know where to get
it; fuel costs more than food. Now which will you take, tea or vodka?"

Godfrey declared for tea. Some of the water from a great pot standing on
the top of the stove was poured into the samovar. Some glowing embers
were taken from the stove and placed in the urn, and in a few minutes
the water was boiling, and three tumblers of tea with a slice of lemon
floating on the top were soon steaming on the table. The conversation
first turned upon university life in Russia, and then Petroff began to
ask questions about English schools and universities, and then the
subject changed to English institutions in general.

"What a different life to ours!" Akim said. "And the peasants, are they
comfortable?"

"Well, their lives are pretty hard ones," Godfrey acknowledged. "They
have to work hard and for long hours, and the pay is poor. But then, on
the other hand, they generally have their cottages at a very low rent,
with a good bit of garden and a few fruit trees. They earn a little
extra money at harvest time, and though their pay is smaller, I think on
the whole they are better off and happier than many of the working
people in the towns."

"And they are free to go where they like?"

"Certainly they are f