"How much do I owe you, Aristid Fomich?" asks the client, in
confusion.

"One rouble and 70 kopecks. . . . Now, give me only one rouble,
or, if you like, 70 kopecks, and as for the rest, I shall wait
until you have earned more than you have now by stealing or by
hard work, it does not matter to me."

"I thank you humbly for your kindness!" says the client, touched
to the heart. "Truly you are a kind man. . . . ; Life has
persecuted you in vain. . . . What an eagle you would have been
in your own place!"

The Captain could not live without eloquent speeches.

"What does 'in my own place' mean? No one really knows his own
place in life, and every one of us crawls into his harness. The
place of the merchant Judas Petunikoff ought to be in penal
servitude, but he still walks through the streets in daylight,
and even intends to build a factory. The place of our teacher
ought to be beside a wife and half-a-dozen children, but he is
loitering in the public-house of Vaviloff. And then, there is
yourself. You are going to seek a situation as a hall porter or
waiter, but I can see that you ought to be a soldier in the army,
because you are no fool, are patient and understand discipline.
Life shuffles us like cards, you see, and it is only
accidentally, and only for a time, that we fall into our own
places!"

Such farewell speeches often served as a preface to the