They all said something of this sort to me. They all agreed, but
agreed, so it seemed to me, not in consequence of my convictions, and
not in consequence of their own wish, but as the result of some
outward cause, which did not permit them not to agree. I had already
noticed this, and, since not one of them stated the sum which he was
willing to contribute, I was obliged to fix it myself, and to ask:
"So I may count on you for three hundred, or two hundred, or one
hundred, or twenty-five rubles?" And not one of them gave me any
money. I mention this because, when people give money for that which
they themselves desire, they generally make haste to give it. For a
box to see Sarah Bernhardt, they will instantly place the money in
your hand, to clinch the bargain. Here, however, out of all those
who agreed to contribute, and who expressed their sympathy, not one
of them proposed to give me the money on the spot, but they merely
assented in silence to the sum which I suggested. In the last house
which I visited on that day, in the evening, I accidentally came upon
a large company. The mistress of the house had busied herself with
charity for several years. Numerous carriages stood at the door,
several lackeys in rich liveries were sitting in the ante-chamber.
In the vast drawing-room, around two tables and lamps, sat ladies and
young girls, in costly garments, dressing small dolls; and there were
several young men there also, hovering about the ladies. The dolls
prepared by these ladies were to be drawn in a lottery for the poor.

The sight of this drawing-room, and of the people assembled in it,
struck me very unpleasantly. Not to mention the fact that the
property of the persons there congregated amounted to many millions,
not to mention the fact that the mere income from the capital here
expended on dresses, laces, bronzes, brooches, carriages, horses,