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Next morning I set off again to Fustov's. To spend my mornings at his
rooms had become a necessity for me. He received me cordially, as usual,
but of our visit of the previous evening--not a word! As though he had
taken water into his mouth, as they say. I began turning over the pages
of the last number of the _Telescope._
A person, unknown to me, came into the room. It turned out to be Mr.
Ratsch's son, the Viktor whose absence had been censured by his father
the evening before.
He was a young man, about eighteen, but already looked dissipated and
unhealthy, with a mawkishly insolent grin on his unclean face, and an
expression of fatigue in his swollen eyes. He was like his father, only
his features were smaller and not without a certain prettiness. But in
this very prettiness there was something offensive. He was dressed in a
very slovenly way; there were buttons off his undergraduate's coat, one
of his boots had a hole in it, and he fairly reeked of tobacco.
'How d'ye do,' he said in a sleepy voice, with those peculiar twitchings
of the head and shoulders which I have always noticed in spoilt and
conceited young men. 'I meant to go to the University, but here I am.
Sort of oppression on my chest. Give us a cigar.' He walked right across
the room, listlessly dragging his feet, and keeping his hands in his
trouser-pockets, and sank heavily upon the sofa.
'Have you caught cold?' asked Fustov, and he introduced us to each
other. We were both students, but were in different faculties.
'No!... Likely! Yesterday, I must own...' (here Ratsch junior smiled,
again not without a certain prettiness, though he showed a set of bad
teeth) 'I was drunk, awfully drunk. Yes'--he lighted a cigar and cleared
his throat--'Obihodov's farewell supper.'
'Where's he going?'
'To the Caucasus, and taking his young lady with him. You know the
black-eyed girl, with the freckles. Silly fool!'
'Your father was asking after you yesterday,' observed Fustov.
Viktor spat aside. 'Yes, I heard about it. You were at our den
yesterday. Well, music, eh?'
'As usual.'
'And _she_... with a new visitor' (here he pointed with his head in
my direction) 'she gave herself airs, I'll be bound. Wouldn't play, eh?'
'Of whom are you speaking?' Fustov asked.
'Why, of the most honoured Susanna Ivanovna, of course!'
Viktor lolled still more comfortably, put his arm up round his head,
gazed at his own hand, and cleared his throat hoarsely.
I glanced at Fustov. He merely shrugged his shoulders, as though giving
me to understand that it was no use talking to such a dolt.