The young man reflected.

“There are six of us.”

“Who are they?” I inquired.

“Well, first there’s Vassily Nikolaevitch, the head cashier; then Piotr, one clerk; Piotr’s brother, Iván, another clerk; the other Iván, a clerk; Konstantin Narkizer, another clerk; and me here—there’s a lot of us, you can’t count all of them.”

“I suppose your mistress has a great many serfs in her house?”

“No, not to say a great many.”

“How many, then?”

“I dare say it runs up to about a hundred and fifty.”

We were both silent for a little.

“I suppose you write a good hand, eh?” I began again.