I could not at all grasp why papa was scolding Karl Ivánovich.
"I am very glad," said mamma, "both for the children and for him; he is an excellent old man."
"You ought to have seen how touched he was when I told him that he should leave the five hundred roubles as a present for the children! But what is most amusing is the bill which he brought me. It is worth looking at," added he, with a smile, as he gave her the note which had been written by Karl Ivánovich's hand. "It is fine!"
Here are the contents of the note.
"For the children two fishing-rod — 70 kopek.
"Coloured paper, gold border, glew and form for boxs, as presents — 6 roubles 55 kopek.
"A book and bow, presents to children — 8 roubles 16 kopek.
"Pantaloon to Nikoláy — 4 rouble.
"Promised by Peter Aleksántrofich from Moscow in the year 18 — gold watch at 140 roubles.
"Sum total due to Karl Mauer outside of salary — 159 roubles 79 kopek."
Reading this note, in which Karl Ivánovich demanded payment for all his expenditures for presents, and even for a present which he had been promised, everybody will conclude that Karl Ivánovich was nothing more than an unfeeling and avaricious egoist, but that is a mistake.
When he entered the cabinet with the notes in his hand and with a ready speech in his head, he had intended to expatiate to papa on all the injustice which he had suffered in our house, but when he began to speak in the same touching voice and the same touching intonations in which he generally dictated to us, his eloquence acted most powerfully upon himself, so that when he reached the place where he said, "However sad it will be for me to part from the children," he completely lost himself, his
