'And I'm going in to Moscow to be an official.'
'What department do you mean to enter?'
'I don't know; that's as it happens. I'll own to you, I'm afraid of official life; one's under responsibility at once. I've always lived in the country; I'm used to it, you know... but now, there's no help for it... it's through poverty! Oh, poverty, how I hate it!'
'But then you will be living in the capital.'
'In the capital.... Well, I don't know what there is that's pleasant in the capital. We shall see; may be, it's pleasant too.... Though nothing, I fancy, could be better than the country.'
'Then is it really impossible for you to live at your country place?'
He gave a sigh.
'Quite impossible. It's, so to say, not my own now.'
'Why, how so?'
'Well, a good fellow there--a neighbour--is in possession... a bill of exchange.'