"Yes, I will come," Nejdanov replied, "and will try to be worthy
of your confidence. But there is one thing I should like to
mention. I could undertake to teach your boy, but am not prepared
to look after him. I do not wish to undertake anything that would
interfere with my freedom."

Sipiagin gave a slight wave of the hand, as if driving away a
fly.

"You may be easy on that point. You are not made that way. I only
wanted a tutor, and I have found one. Well, now, how about terms?
Financial terms, that is. Base metal!"

Nejdanov did not know what to say.

"I think," Sipiagin went on, bending forward and touching
Nejdanov with the tips of his fingers, "that decent people can
settle such things in two words. I will give you a hundred
roubles a month and all travelling expenses. Will you come?

Nejdanov blushed.

"That is more than I wanted to ask . . . because I--"

"Well," Sipiagin interrupted him, "I look upon the matter as
settled, and consider you as a member of our household." He rose
from his chair, and became quite gay and expansive, as if he had
just received a present. A certain amiable familiarity, verging
on the playful, began to show itself in all his gestures. " We
shall set out in a day or two," he went on, in an easy tone.