`Bolgarinov has fully assented, as far as he's concerned,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, turning red. Stepan Arkadyevich reddened at the mention of that name, because he had been that morning at the Jew Bolgarinov's, and the visit had left an unpleasant recollection.

Stepan Arkadyevich believed most positively that the committee in which he was trying to get an appointment was a new, genuine, and honest public body, but that morning when Bolgarinov had - intentionally, beyond a doubt - kept him two hours waiting with other petitioners in his waiting room, he had suddenly felt uneasy.

Whether he was uncomfortable because he, a descendant of Rurik, Prince Oblonsky, had been kept for two hours waiting to see a Jew, or that for the first time in his fife he was not following the example of his ancestors in serving the government, but was turning off into a new career - at any rate he was very uncomfortable. During those two hours in Bolgarinov's waiting room Stepan Arkadyevich, stepping jauntily about the room, pulling his side whiskers, entering into conversation with the other petitioners, and inventing a calembour dealing with his wait in the Jew's anteroom, assiduously concealed from others, and even from himself, the feeling he was experiencing.

But all the time he was uncomfortable and perturbed, he could not have said why - whether because he could not get his calembour just right, or from some other reason. When at last Bolgarinov had received him with exaggerated politeness and unmistakable triumph at his humiliation, and had all but refused the favor asked of him, Stepan Arkadyevich had made haste to forget it all as soon as possible. And now, at the mere recollection, he blushed.