was more "necessary" for him than any other land, and there he was going to stay a long time; maybe for more than a year, and maybe forever, if he should find anything to do there. But it was more probable that in three years he would return to Russia, because in Russia, if not now, still by that time, it will be "necessary" for him to be there.
All this seemed very much like Rakhmétof, especially the word "necessary," which was left in the narrator's memory. His age, his voice, his features, as far as the narrator could remember, of the traveller, also pointed to Rakhmétof; but the narrator did not pay much attention at that time to his travelling companion, who, moreover, was not with him very long, not more than two hours. He entered the train at some little town, and he got out at some village; therefore the narrator could describe his appearance only in too general terms, and there was no full certainty possible; but in all probability it was Rakhmétof. Yet who can tell? Maybe it was not he.
There was still another rumor, that a young Russian, once a proprietor,[1] appeared before one of the greatest European philosophers of the nineteenth century, the father of a new philosophy, a German. "I have thirty thousand thalers; all I need is five thousand. The balance I beg of you to accept from me." (The philosopher was living very wretchedly.) "Why?" "To publish your works." The philosopher naturally did not accept the offer; but the Russian was said to have left the money with a banker in the philosopher's name, and to have written him thus: "Use this money as you please. Throw it into the river, if you want, but you can't return it to me; you can't find me." And it is said that even now this money is at the banker's. If this rumor is true, then there is no doubt that it was Rakhmétof who appeared before the philosopher.
Such was the gentleman who was sitting in Kirsánof's library.
Yes, this gentleman is an extraordinary man, an example of a very rare species. I do not describe this example of a very rare species, with all this detail, for the sake of teaching thee, O sapient reader, how to treat people of this kind politely, for that is out of thy province. It is not likely that thou wilt see any such people; thy eyes, sapient reader, are not constituted so as to see such people; they are invisible
- ↑ Pomyeshchik.
