He responded placidly:
"With me? Just as I like."
He became silent. I wanted to be friendly, and I selected this phrase:
"What are you doing now?"
"You see what I am doing," he answered, quite resignedly.
I felt my face getting red. I insisted:
"But every day?"
"Every day is alike to me," was his response, accompanied with a thick puff of tobacco smoke.
He then tapped on the top of the marble table with a sou, to attract the attention of the waiter, and called out:
"Waiter, two 'bocks.'"