A disagreeable-looking man-servant came in with a cup of coffee, cream
and sugar on a tray.

'The father is pleased with a suitor,' pursued Nikolai Artemyevitch,
breaking off a lump of sugar; 'but what is that to the daughter!
That was all very well in the old patriarchal days, but now we have
changed all that. _Nous avons change tout ca_. Nowadays a young girl
talks to any one she thinks fit, reads what she thinks fit; she goes
about Moscow alone without a groom or a maid, just as in Paris; and
all that is permitted. The other day I asked, "Where is Elena
Nikolaevna?" I'm told she has gone out. Where? No one knows. Is
that--the proper thing?'

'Take your coffee, and let the man go,' said Shubin. 'You say
yourself that one ought not _devant les domestiques_' he added in an
undertone.

The servant gave Shubin a dubious look, while Nikolai Artemyevitch
took the cup of coffee, added some cream, and seized some ten lumps of
sugar.

'I was just going to say when the servant came in,' he began, 'that I
count for nothing in this house. That's the long and short of the
matter. For nowadays every one judges from appearances; one man's an
empty-headed fool, but gives himself airs of importance, and he's
respected; while another, very likely, has talents which might--which
might gain him great distinction, but through modesty----'

'Aren't you a born statesman?' asked Shubin in a jeering voice.