little interest, but
when he had drunk a few glasses of wine his blood grew warmer. At last
the waiter took away the last dish, Lezhnyov got up, closed the door,
and coming back to the table, sat down facing Rudin, and quietly rested
his chin on his hands.

'Now, then,' he began, 'tell me all that has happened to you since I saw
you last.'

Rudin looked at Lezhnyov.

'Good God!' thought Lezhnyov, 'how he has changed, poor fellow!'

Rudin's features had undergone little change since we saw him last at
the posting-station, though approaching old age had had time to set its
mark upon them; but their expression had become different. His eyes had
a changed look; his whole being, his movements, which were at one time
slow, at another abrupt and disconnected, his crushed, benumbed
manner of speaking, all showed an utter exhaustion, a quiet and secret
dejection, very different from the half-assumed melancholy which he had
affected once, as it is generally affected by youth, when full of hopes
and confident vanity.

'Tell you all that has happened to me?' he said; 'I could not tell you
all, and it is not worth while. I am worn out; I have wandered far--in
spirit as well as in flesh. What friends I have made--good God! How
many things, how many men I have lost faith in! Yes, how many!' repeated
Rudin, noticing that Lezhnyov was looking in his face with a kind of
special sympathy. 'How many times have my own words grown hateful to
me! I don't mean now on my own lips, but on the lips of those who had
adopted my opinions! How many times have I passed from the petulance of
a child to the dull insensibility of a horse who does not lash his tail
when the whip cuts him!... How many times I have been happy and hopeful,
and have made enemies and humbled myself for nothing! How many times
I have taken flight like an eagle--and returned crawling like a snail
whose shell has been crushed!... Where have I not been! What roads
have I not travelled!... And the roads are often dirty,' added Rudin,
slightly turning away. 'You know ...' he was continuing.... 'Listen,'
interrupted Lezhnyov. 'We used once to say "Dmitri and Mihail" to one
another. Let us revive the old habit,... will you? Let us drink to those
days!'

Rudin started and drew himself up a little, and there was a gleam in his
eyes of something no word can express.

'Let us drink to them,' he said. 'I thank you, brother, we will drink to
them!'

Lezhnyov and Rudin drained th