Bersenyev drew at the pipe: 'I have even been thinking,' he began
again, blowing out the smoke in a thin cloud, 'that if any one could
be found--you, for instance, I thought of--who would care, who would
consent to establish himself there upstairs, how nice it would be!
What do you think, Dmitri Nikanorovitch?'

Insarov turned his little eyes on him. 'You propose my staying in
your country house?'

'Yes; I have a room to spare there upstairs.'

'Thanks very much, Andrei Petrovitch; but I expect my means would not
allow of it.'

'How do you mean?'

'My means would not allow of my living in a country house. It's
impossible for me to keep two lodgings.'

'But of course I'--Bersenyev was beginning, but he stopped short.
'You would have no extra expense in that way,' he went on. 'Your
lodging here would remain for you, let us suppose; but then everything
there is very cheap; we could even arrange so as to dine, for
instance, together.'

Insarov said nothing. Bersenyev began to feel awkward.

'You might at least pay me a visit sometime,' he began, after a short
pause. 'A few steps from me there's a family living with whom I want