"But you have not known him very long, have you?"
"No—not very long."
"I thought not, for I do not remember to have seen him in St. Petersburg last winter. In what does he most interest himself?"
"Principally in natural science. But, to tell the truth, he knows practically everything, and is to become a doctor next year."
"Oh! So he is in the Medical Faculty?" Nikolai Petrovitch remarked; after which there was silence for a moment.
"Peter," went on Nikolai, pointing with his hand, "are not those peasants there some of our own?"
Peter glanced in the direction indicated, and saw a few waggons proceeding along a narrow by-road. The teams were bridleless, and in each waggon were seated some two or three muzhiks with their blouses unbuttoned.
"Yes, they are some of our own," Peter responded.
"Then whither can they be going? To the town?"
"Yes—or to the tavern." This last was added contemptuously, and with a wink to the coachman that was designed to enlist that functionary's sympathy: but as the functionary in question was one of the old school which takes no share in the modern movement, he stirred not a muscle of his face.