"Everything is in order. Two kopecks for the night, ten kopecks
for the week, and thirty kopecks for the month. Go and get a
place for yourself, and see that it is not other people's, or
else they will blow you up. The people that live here are
particular."

"Don't you sell tea, bread, or anything to eat?"

"I trade only in walls and roofs, for which I pay to the
swindling proprietor of this hole--Judas Petunikoff, merchant of
the second guild--five roubles a month," explained Kuvalda in a
business-like tone. "Only those come to me who are not
accustomed to comfort and luxuries . . . . but if you are
accustomed to eat every day, then there is the eating-house
opposite. But it would be better for you if you left off that
habit. You see you are not a gentleman. What do you eat? You
eat yourself!"

For such speeches, delivered in a strictly business-like manner,
and always with smiling eyes, and also for the attention he paid
to his lodgers the Captain was very popular among the poor of the
town. It very often happened that a former client of his would
appear, not in rags, but in something more respectable and with a
slightly happier face.

"Good-day, your honour, and how do you do?"

"Alive, in good health! Go on."