hostility; as he had promised, he 'did not forget' my refusal. He
ill-treated me, made me copy his long and lying reports to Semyon
Matveitch, and correct for him the mistakes in spelling. I was forced to
obey him absolutely, and I did obey him. He announced that he meant to
tame me, to make me as soft as silk. 'What do you mean by those mutinous
eyes?' he shouted sometimes at dinner, drinking his beer, and slapping
the table with his hand. 'You think, maybe, you're as silent as a sheep,
so you must be all right.... Oh, no! You'll please look at me like a
sheep too!' My position became a torture, insufferable,... my heart was
growing bitter. Something dangerous began more and more frequently to
stir within it. I passed nights without sleep and without a light,
thinking, thinking incessantly; and in the darkness without and the
gloom within, a fearful determination began to shape itself. The arrival
of Semyon Matveitch gave another turn to my thoughts.

No one had expected him. It turned out that he was retiring in
unpleasant circumstances; he had hoped to receive the Alexander ribbon,
and they had presented him with a snuff-box. Discontented with the
government, which had failed to appreciate his talents, and with
Petersburg society, which had shown him little sympathy, and did not
share his indignation, he determined to settle in the country, and
devote himself to the management of his property. He arrived alone. His
son, Mihail Semyonitch, arrived later, in the holidays for the New Year.
My stepfather was scarcely ever out of Semyon Matveitch's room; he still
stood high in his good graces. He left me in peace; he had no time for
me then... Semyon Matveitch had taken it into his head to start a paper
factory. Mr. Ratsch had no knowledge whatever of manufacturing work, and
Semyon Matveitch was aware of the fact; but then my stepfather was an
active man (the favourite expression just then), an 'Araktcheev!' That
was just what Semyon Matveitch used to call him--'my Araktcheev!'