must," he used to say. What things he used to say and do on such occasions is beyond comprehension.
Here, for example, is my own experience with him. I was then not very young; I was living comfortably, and therefore oftentimes five or six young people from my province used to visit me. Consequently, I was a valuable man for his purposes; these young people were attached to me, because they saw that I had an attachment for them; in this manner he heard my name. And I, when I had met him for the first time, at Kirsánof's, had never known anything about him; this was soon after his return from his wanderings. He came in after I did; I was the only one in the company whom he did not know. When he entered, he took Kirsánof aside, and indicating me with his eyes, said several words. Kirsánof answered him briefly, and they separated. In a minute Rakhmétof was sitting directly in front of me, with only a small table which stood by the sofa dividing us, and from this distance, which was only an arshín and a half, he began to study my face with all his might. I was vexed; he examined me without any ceremony, as though I were not a man, but a picture: I grew angry. It was none of his business. After looking at me for two or three minutes, he said to me: "Mr. N., I must get acquainted with you; I know you, but you don't know me. Ask about me of the khozyáïn, and anybody else whom you particularly trust, in this company." Having said this, he got up and went into the other room.
"Who is that crank[1]?"
"That is Rakhmétof; he wants you to ask whether he can be trusted,—without hesitation; and whether he deserves attention—he is more important than all the rest of us here taken together," said Kirsánof, and others corroborated it.
In about five minutes he returned to the room where we were all sitting. He did not say anything to me, and he spoke very little to the others. The conversation was not scientific and not important.
"Ah! it is already ten o'clock!" he exclaimed, after some little time. "At ten o'clock I have an engagement at such and such a place.—Mr. N.," he said, turning to me. "I have a few words that I want to say to you. When I took the khozyáïn aside to ask him who you were, I pointed you out with my eyes, so that you must have seen that I was
- ↑ Tchudak.
