The footman left the room respectfully and Solomin sent for Pavel, had a talk with him, ran across to the factory once more, then putting on a black coat with a very long waist, which had been made by a provincial tailor, and a shabby top-hat which instantly gave his face a wooden expression, took his seat in the phaeton. He suddenly remembered that he had forgotten his gloves, and called out to the “never-failing” Pavel, who brought him a pair of newly-washed white kid ones, the fingers of which were so stretched at the tips that they looked like long biscuits. Solomin thrust the gloves into his pocket and gave the order to start. Then the footman jumped onto the box with an unnecessary amount of alacrity, the well-bred coachman sang out in a falsetto voice, and the horses started off at a gallop.
While the horses were bearing Solomin along to Sipiagin’s, that gentleman was sitting in his drawing-room with a halfcut political pamphlet on his knee, discussing him with his wife. He confided to her that he had written to him with the express purpose of trying to get him away from the merchant’s factory to his own, which was in a very bad way and needed reorganising. Sipiagin would not for a moment entertain the idea that Solomin would refuse to come, or even so much as appoint another day, though he had himself suggested it.
“But ours is a paper-mill, not a spinning-mill,” Valentina Mihailovna remarked.
“It’s all the same, my dear, machines are used in both, and he’s a mechanic.”
“But supposing he turns out to be a specialist!”
“My dear! In the first place there are no such things as specialists in Russia; in the second, I’ve told you that he’s a mechanic!”
Valentina Mihailovna smiled.
“Do be careful, my dear. You’ve been unfortunate once already with young men; mind you don’t make a second mistake.”
“Are you referring to Nejdanov? I don’t think I’ve been altogether mistaken with regard to him. He has been a good tutor to Kolia. And then you know non bis in idem! Excuse my being pedantic.... It means, things don’t repeat themselves!”
“Don’t you think so? Well, I think that everything in the world repeats itself ... especially what’s in the nature of things ... and particularly among young people.”