is of some use. Even a stone is created for use; and man, the most intelligent being of them all—is it possible that he should remain useless?”

“But I shall not be without occupation. I can attend to the education of my children.”

“No, Semyon Semyonovitch, that is the hardest thing of all. How can you educate your children when you are not educated yourself? You can educate your children by the example of your own life. But is your life a fitting example for them? Is it well to teach them, for instance, to pass their time in idleness and in card-playing? No, Semyon Semyonovitch, give your children to me to take care of: you will spoil them. Think seriously of this matter: idleness has been your ruin—you must flee from it. How can you live in the world without attaching yourself to anything? Some duty must be fulfilled. Even a day-labourer serves a use. He eats coarse bread, but he earns it; and he takes an interest in his occupation.”

“By heavens, Afanasiy Vasilievitch, I have tried, I have really made an effort to conquer myself! What am I to do? I have grown old, I have become unfitted for anything. Now, what can I do? Shall I enter the service? But how am I, at my age, to sit at one desk with the office-clerks who have just begun their career? Besides, I am incapable of accepting bribes; and hence I hinder my own advancement, and injure others. And they have their castes already formed. No, Afanasiy Vasilievitch, I have reflected, and I have tried, and I have meditated on all sorts of situations—and I am unfitted for any one of them. In the almshouse, perhaps.”

“The almshouse is for those who have toiled; but to those who have passed their youth in merriment, one gives the answer which the ant gave to the grasshopper, ‘Go, dance!’ And those who live in the almshouse work also, and toil, and do not play at whist. Semyon Semyonovitch, you are deceiving both yourself and family.”

So saying, Murazoff gazed intently into the other man’s face; for poor Khlobuyoff could make no reply. Murazoff felt sorry for him.

“Listen, Semyon Semyonovitch,” he resumed. “Surely you pray when you enter a church; you miss neither mass nor vespers, that I know. Although you do not like to rise early, still you do it, and you go—yes, you go to church at four o’clock in the morning, when no one else is up.”

“That’s another thing, Afanasiy Vasilievitch. I know that I am not doing that for man, but for Him who has commanded us all to exist on earth. But what of that? I believe that He is merciful to me; that, no matter how wretched and vile I may be, He will pardon and receive me when men repulse me with their feet, and when my best friend betrays me, and pretends that he betrayed me with a beneficent aim.”

A look of bitterness came over Khlobuyoff’s countenance; and Murazoff held his peace for a moment, as though to allow him to recover himself. Then he said, “Why do not you accept some duties, but not for the sake of man or for the gratification of society? Serve Him who is so merciful. Work is well-pleasing in His sight, as well as prayer. Engage in some occupation, but undertake it as though you were doing it for His sake, and not for that of man. Come, now, if you do but draw water in a sieve, just think that you are doing it for His sake. You will derive at least this profit from it—that you will have no time left to lose money at cards, to feast with parasites, and lounge your life away. Eh, Semyon Semyonovitch! Do you know Ivan Potapuich?”

“I know him, and respect him very deeply.”

“Well, he was formerly a prosperous merchant. He had half a million. Everything which he looked at turned to profit, and he launched into large expenditure. He began to have his son taught French, and he married his daughter to a general. And wherever he encountered a friend, whether in a shop or in the street of the exchange, he would drag him into a tavern; he feasted thus for days at a time, and finally became bankrupt. And then God sent a calamity upon him: his son died. And now, do you see? he is a clerk in my employ. He has made a fresh start. His affairs have righted themselves. He might again