In this way he used often to come to us. Once he came with the prince, and the whiskered man who was the prince's crony; the gentlemen always called him "Fedotka." He had prominent cheek-bones, and was homely enough, to be sure; but he used to dress neatly and ride in a carriage. What was the reason that the gentlemen were so fond of him? I really could not tell.
"Fedotka! Fedotka!" they'd call, and ask him to eat and to drink, and they'd spend their money paying up for him; but he was a thorough-going beat. If ever he lost, he would be sure not to pay; but if he won, you bet he wouldn't fail to collect his money. Often too he came to grief: yet there he was, walking arm in arm with the prince.
"You are lost without me," he would say to the prince. "I am, Fedot,"[51] says he; "but not a Fedot of that sort."
And what jokes he used to crack, to be sure! Well, as I said, they had already arrived that time, and one of them says, "Let's have the balls for three-handed pool."
"All right," says the other.
They began to play at three rubles a stake. Nekhliudof and the prince play, and chat about all sorts of things meantime.
"Ah!" says one of them, "you mind only what a neat little foot she has."
"Oh," says the other, "her foot is nothing; her beauty is her wealth of hair."
Of course they paid no attention to the game, only kept on talking to one another.
As to Fedotka, that fellow was alive to his work; he played his very best, but they didn't do themselves justice at all.