"Why hasn't Nicolaieff come?" asked Goschienko sharply.
"Nicolaieff was not able to come," replied Pistzoff.
"Nicolaieff is blind drunk," added Koudriavji in a dry voice.
"Oh! I see," said Goschienko, as he shook his head. This movement on
his part, which seemed to express compassion, exasperated Yourii, who
saw in the big student a personal enemy.
"He chose the better part," observed Ivanoff.
Again the dog barked in the courtyard.
"Some one else is coming," said Dubova.
"Probably, the police," remarked Goschienko with feigned indifference.
"I am sure that you would not mind if it were the police," cried
Dubova.
Sanine looked at her intelligent eyes, and the plait of fair hair
falling over her shoulder, which almost made her face attractive.
"A smart girl, that!" he thought.
Soloveitchik jumped up as if to run out, but, recollecting himself,
pretended to take a cigarette from the table. Goschienko noticed this,
and, without replying to Dubova, said: "How fidgety you are, Soloveitchik!"
Soloveitchik turned crimson and blinked his eyes ruefully. He felt
vaguely conscious that his zeal did not deserve to be so severely
rebuked. Then Novikoff noisily entered.
"Here I am!" he exclaimed, with a cheery smile.
"So I see," replied Sanine.
Novikoff shook the other's hand and whispered hurriedly, as if by way
of excuse, "Lidia Petrovna has got visitors."
"Oh! yes."
"Have we only come here to talk?" asked the Polytechnic student with
some irritation. "Do let us make a start."
"Then you have not begun yet?" said Novikoff, evidently pleased. He
shook hands with the two workmen, who hastily rose from their seats. It
was embarrassing to meet the doctor as a fellow-comrade, when at the
hospital he was wont to treat them as his inferiors.
Goschienko, looking rather annoyed, then began.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are naturally all desirous to widen our
outlook, and to broaden our views of life; and, believing that the best
method of self-culture and of self-development lies in a systematic
course of reading and an interchange of opinions regarding the books
read, we have decided to start this little club...."
"That's right," sighed Pistzoff approvingly, as he looked round at the
company with his bright, dark eyes.
"The question now arises: What books ought we to read? Possibly some
one here present could make a suggestion regarding the programme that
should be adopted?"
Schafroff put on his glasses and slowly stood up. In his hand he held a
small note-book.