There was help for it; the tomtit for the hand had to be provided. Then the dubious coolness of the philosopher suddenly vanished. He turned out to be the most good-natured of men, extremely communicative and agreeable in conversation, and not a whit inferior in cleverness to Tchitchikoff himself.

“Permit me to say to you, instead of entering into a long-winded talk, that you certainly cannot have examined the last will thoroughly. It assuredly contains some codicil. Get it into your possession as speedily as possible. Although, of course, it is forbidden to take such things home with one, still, if certain officials are appealed to in the proper way——I will render assistance on my part.”

“I understand,” thought Tchitchikoff; and he said, “I really cannot distinctly recall whether there was a codicil or not”—just as though he had not written the will himself.

“The very best thing that you can do will be to look it over. Besides, in any case,” the lawyer continued in an amiable way, “you must feel quite at your ease; and you must not take alarm at anything, even if matters seem to be going very badly. Never despair of anything under any circumstances whatever. There is nothing which cannot be remedied. Look at me. I am always tranquil. No matter what critical accusations are brought against me, my composure remains immovable.” The face of the lawyer-philosopher did, in point of fact, retain a remarkably tranquil look, which was very re-assuring to Tchitchikoff.

“That is, of course, a matter of the greatest moment; but you must acknowledge, nevertheless, that occasions may arise of such a nature, that an attack on the part of one’s enemies may be of such a description, and that there may occur difficult situations of such a sort that all composure is put to flight.”

“That is cowardice, believe me,” rejoined the philosophical lawyer with great composure and amiability. “Only try to have all transactions set down on paper, and have nothing left to talk alone. And as soon as you perceive that the affair is approaching a solution, and that it is ripe for settlement, do not endeavour to justify and defend yourself, but simply try to introduce some fresh issues which have no connection with the case.”

“That is with the object of doing what?”

“Producing confusion, producing confusion, nothing more: you must introduce side issues, extraneous circumstances, into this case, so that other people may become involved in it; the object is to render the matter complicated, neither more nor less. And then let some freshly arrived official from Petersburg unravel it, let him unravel it if he can!” the sagacious lawyer repeated, looking Tchitchikoff straight in the eye with extraordinary satisfaction, just as a teacher contemplates a pupil when he is explaining to him some treacherous passage in the Russian grammar.

“And it will be as well for you to collect such items as are calculated to throw dust in people’s eyes,” said Tchitchikoff, also gazing with satisfaction into the eyes of the philosopher, like a pupil who has understood his teacher’s exposition of a deceptive passage.

“Such items will be provided, they will be provided. Believe me, the brain grows inventive by dint of frequent practice. You will gain a great deal by complicating matters; and we must have as many officials mixed up in it as possible, and their fees must be handsome. In short, as many persons as possible must be drawn into the business. There is no necessity of sacrificing other people for nothing, but we must justify ourselves by means of them, and they must be responsible on paper. They must buy themselves off. There’s harvest for you! In this manner you can complicate and entangle matters, so that no one can understand anything about them. Why am I so calm? Because I know this: when my affairs are going very badly I get everyone implicated in them—the governor and the vice-governor, and the chief of police and the treasurer—I get every one of them involved. I know all their circumstances—just who has a quarrel with whom, and who is offended with whom, and who wants to revenge himself on whom. Then let them extricate themselves if they can: others can be found to replace them. It is only in troubled waters that fish are caught.”