"Splendidly," replied Arkady.
"And I, as you see, am imitating Cincinnatus, and preparing a bed of late turnips. By the mercy of God do the times compel every man to win his bread with his own hands. At all times, indeed, is it useless to rely upon others: it is best to work oneself. Thus Jean Jacques Rousseau was right. Half an hour ago, however, you would have seen me in a very different rôle—first of all, injecting opium into a woman who had come to me with what the peasants call I the goad,' and we dysentery, and then pulling out some teeth for a second woman. And, would you believe it, when I proposed administering ether to the second woman she would have none of it! These things I do gratis, you know, and as an amateur. Yet, let that not surprise you, for, after all, I am but a plebeian, but a homo novus. Come downstairs to sit in the shade and enjoy the freshness of the morning until breakfast shall be ready."
Arkady did as invited.
"You confer a favour upon me," said Vasili Ivanitch, raising his hand in military fashion to the battered skull-cap which adorned his head. "You see, I know you to be used to luxury and ease. Yet even the folk of the great world need not disdain to snatch a brief respite under the roof of a cottage."
"I neither belong to the great world nor am used to luxury," protested Arkady.
"Come now!" Vasili Ivanitch indulged in an amiable affectation of incredulity. "I myself, though I am now on the shelf, have rubbed about in my time, and can tell a bird by its flight. Also, I dabble a little in physiognomy and psychology. For that matter, I will not hesitate to say that, had I not enjoyed those advantages, I should long ago have come to rack and ruin, for the reason that, being one of the small fry, I should soon have been jostled out of the way by the crowd. Also, without flattery, I may say that the friendship which I discern to be existing between you and my son affords me the greatest pleasure. Only this moment I was speaking to him; for (as probably you know) he jumps out of bed at a very early hour, and goes careering all over the countryside. M-might I make so bold as to ask you whether you have known him long?"
"Only since last winter."
"Indeed? Also, might I make so bold as to ask whether—But sit you down, will you not?—might I also, as his father, venture to ask your frank opinion of him?"
"Your son is the most remarkable man that I have ever met," came the enthusiastic reply.
Vasili Ivanitch's eyes closed suddenly, while his cheeks quivered, and the spade slipped from his hand.