'I am sorry,' said Petrovitch; 'I could not leave earlier.'
'Little good you'll do in a house like that,' grumbled Hirsch, knitting his brows. 'Casting pearls before swine.'
'Not quite that, my good Hirsch. Casting seed upon stony ground, maybe, but I am much mistaken if some has not fallen upon virgin soil, and then my evening has not been wasted. How did it fare with you this morning?'
Hirsch silently produced Litvinoff's cheque, not quite so fresh-looking as when he had received it.
'Ah, as I expected!' said the other, glancing at it under a lamp. 'Ten pounds is not illiberal. You see, he does not keep so tight a purse-string as you thought.'
'Lightly won lightly spent. Donner wetter! he gained it easily enough.'
'This is not spent—it is given. Don't be unjust.'
'Gott in Himmel! You're a good man, Petrovitch. You seem to have no faults.'
'Ah! so it may seem to you who have known me only three months, but I have known myself more than a score of years, and I know that I am full of them. Come home with me and have a smoke, and we'll talk about something else.'