uttered freely the most extreme views, laughed at his own Old Believers' faith, ate meat in Lent, played cards, and drank champagne like water. And he never got into trouble, because, he used to say, 'I have every authority bribed just where it's needed, every hole is sewn up, all mouths are shut, all ears are deaf.' He was a widower and childless; his sister's sons hung about him with timorous servility . . . but he used to call them unenlightened clowns and barbarians, and would hardly look at them. He lived in a large stone house, rather sluttishly kept; in some rooms the furniture was all of foreign make─in others there was nothing but painted chairs and an American-leather sofa. Pictures were hung everywhere, and all of them were wretched daubs─red landscapes, pink marine views, Moller's 'Kiss,' and fat, naked women, with red knees and elbows. Though Golushkin had no family, there were a great many servants and dependents of different kinds under his roof; it was not from generosity that he kept them, but, again, from a desire for power, so as to have a public of some sort at his command to show off before. 'My clients', he used to call them when he was in a bragging mood; he never read a book, but he had a capital memory for learned expressions.
The young men found Golushkin in his
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