he church, but
with his father's consent threw it up and began to study mathematics,
as he had taken a special liking to mechanics. He entered a factory of
which the owner was an Englishman, who got to love him like his own son.
This man supplied him with the means of going to Manchester, where he
stayed for two years, acquiring an excellent knowledge of the English
language. With the Moscow merchant he had fallen in but a short time
ago. He was exacting with his subordinates, a manner he had acquired
in England, but they liked him nevertheless, and treated him as one of
themselves. His father was very proud of him, and used to speak of him
as a steady sort of man, but was very grieved that he did not marry and
settle down.

During the discussion, as we have already said, Solomin sat silent the
whole time; but when Markelov began enlarging upon the hopes they put
on the factory workers, Solomin remarked, in his usual laconic way, that
they must not depend too much on them, as factory workers in Russia were
not what they were abroad. "They are an extremely mild set of people
here."

"And what about the peasants?"

"The peasants? There are a good many sweaters and money-lenders among
them now, and there are likely to be more in time. This kind only look
to their own interests, and as for the others, they are as ignorant as
sheep."

"Then where are we to turn to?" Solomin smiled.

"Seek and ye shall find."

There was a constant smile on his lips, but the smile was as full of
meaning as the man himself. With Nejdanov he behaved in a very peculiar
manner. He was attracted to the young student and felt an almost tender
sympathy for him. At one part of the discussion, where Nejdanov broke
out into a perfect torrent of words, Solomin got up quietly, moved
across the room with long strides, and shut a window that was standing
open just above Nejdanov's head.

"You might catch cold," he observed, in answer to the orator's look of
amazement.

Nejdanov began to question him about his factory, asking if any
cooperative experiments had been made, if anything had been done so that
the workers might come in for a share of the profits.

"My dear fellow!" Solomin exclaimed, "I instituted a school and a tiny
hospital, and even then the owner struggled like a bear!"

Solomin lost his temper once in real earnest on hearing of some legal
injustice about the suppression of a workman's association. He banged
his powerful fist on