n Kuvalda, desiring at the
same time to punch the merchant's belly.

"Isn't it all the same? Money makes life comfortable, but no money,"
... and the merchant looked at the Captain with a feigned expression of
suffering. The other's upper lip curled, and exposed large, wolf-like
teeth.

"With brains and a conscience, it is possible to live without it. Men
only acquire riches when they cease to listen to their conscience ...
the less conscience the more money!"

"Just so; but then there are men who have neither money nor conscience."

"Were you just like what you are now when you were young?" asked
Kuvalda simply. The other's nostrils twitched. Ivan Andreyevitch
sighed, passed his hand over his eyes and said:

"Oh! When I was young I had to undergo a great many difficulties ...
Work! Oh! I did work!"

"And you cheated, too, I suppose?"

"People like you? Nobles? I should just think so! They used to grovel
at my feet!"

"You only went in for robbing, not murder, I suppose?" asked the
Captain. Petunikoff turned pale, and hastily changed the subject.

"You are a bad host. You sit while your guest stands."

"Let him sit, too," said Kuvalda.

"But what am I to sit on?"

"On the earth ... it will take any rubbish ..."

"You are the proof of that," said Petunikoff quietly, while his eyes
shot forth poisonous glances.

And he went away, leaving Kuvalda under the pleasant impression that
the merchant was afraid of him. If he were not afraid of him he would
long ago have evicted him from the dosshouse. But then he would think
twice before turning him out, because of the five roubles a month. And
the Captain gazed with pleasure at Petunikoff's back as he slowly
retreated from the courtyard. Following him with his eyes, he noticed
how the merchant passed the factory and disappeared into the wood, and
he wished very much that he might fall and break all his bones. He sat
imagining many horrible forms of disaster while watching Petunikoff,
who was descending the hill into the wood like a spider going into its
web. Last night he even imagined that the wood gave way before the
merchant and he fell ... but afterwards he found that he had only been
dreaming.

And to-day, as always, the red building stands out before the eyes of
Aristid Kuvalda, so plain, so massive, and clinging so strongly to the
earth, that it seems to be sucking away all its life. It appears to be
laughing coldly at the Captain with