“If you please, sir, a strange gentleman came while your honour was asleep; he calls himself a village schoolmaster.”
“Where is he now?”
“Sitting in the office.”
“Let him in.”
There came on to the verandah a sunburnt man of about forty, in a nankeen coat and high boots. The master of the house offered him a chair.
“Who are you?”
“Schoolmaster from the Pobiràkhinsky district, from the village of Bezzùbov. I humbly venture to trouble you with a request; can I not obtain some kind of situation?”
“I don’t want a schoolmaster,” said the owner of the house.
“I can take other situations. I have heard that you are looking for a clerk?”
“Why did you leave your situation in Bezzùbov?”