“What’s a career without a fortune? It’s a nice thought, but if that’s what you had in mind, you shouldn’t have come.”

“But why do you say that? I hope not just on the basis of your own experience?” As he spoke, Alexander was looking around him.

“Well observed! Yes indeed, I am well off, and business is pretty good. But as far as I can tell, you and I are very different.”

“I wouldn’t dream of comparing myself with you.”

“That’s not the point: you may well be ten times smarter and better than me… it’s just that you’re not the type to adapt to a totally new environment, and your environment back home – my God! There, you’ve been pampered and spoilt by your mother; how could you possibly put up with what I have had to put up with? You are undoubtedly a dreamer, but here there’s simply no time for dreaming; people like us come here to get down to business.”

“Perhaps I might be able to achieve something if you were to share with me your experience and offer me some advice.”

“I’m reluctant to offer advice. I can’t be sure about the effect of your rural upbringing on your temperament: if my advice turns out to be worthless, you’ll blame me, but I don’t mind giving you my opinion, and you can heed it or not as you choose. But no, I don’t think it would work. You have your own outlook on life: how are you going to change it? You’re infatuated with the idea of love, friendship, happiness and the glittering prizes of life; people think that’s what life is all about, my oh my! So they cry, snivel and mouth pleasantries, but never get down to business… And how can I ever hope to get you to change that outlook? It wouldn’t be easy!”

“I’ll try to adapt to modern ideas, Uncle. Why, just today I was looking at these monumental buildings and those ships which bring us all these gifts from foreign lands, and I started thinking about the achievements of humanity today and understood the excitement of these crowds going so purposefully about their business, and felt myself ready to join in…”

On hearing this monologue, Pyotr Ivanych raised his eyebrows expressively, and studied his nephew carefully. Alexander fell silent.

“Well, it appears to be a simple matter,” said his uncle. “God knows what notions these people will get into their heads next. ‘Crowds going purposefully about their business’! It would really be better for you to have stayed where you were. You could live out a wonderful life back there: you might be taken for the smartest and most eloquent fellow around – you could believe in eternal and unwavering love and friendship, in family and happiness – you could marry and live to a ripe old age without noticing the time going by, and indeed be happy after your own fashion; but by our standards here you will not be happy, and all your ideas would have to be turned upside down.”

“But Uncle, surely love and friendship are sacred and noble feelings which somehow or other just happen to have fallen upon our dirty earth from above…”

“What?”

Alexander fell silent.

“‘Love and friendship have fallen into the dirt’! What is this nonsense you’re spouting?”

“But what I meant was: aren’t those things the same whether they’re here or there?”

“Yes, we have love and friendship here too – you find those things everywhere, but they’re not the same here as where you come from; in time you’ll come to see this yourself… Above all, you should forget about all this ‘sacred’ and ‘noble’ business, and try to look at what these things actually are in practice: you would really be better off, and become a simpler and better person – and talk like one. But, really, it’s none of my business. You’re here now, and there’s no turning back. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you will have only yourself to blame; I’m just warning you about what in my opinion is good and what is bad, but back there, you’re your own master… But let’s give it a try; perhaps we’ll be able to make something of you. Oh yes! Your mother asked me to provide you with money. Well, there’s something I want to tell you: don’t ask me for any. That always disrupts harmonious relations between decent people. But anyway, don’t think that I’m refusing you money – no, and if it comes down to that, and there’s no other way, then you’ll just have to come to me… It’s always better to borrow from an uncle than a stranger: at least, that way, there’s no interest to pay. But to avoid those dire straits, I’ll find you some work as soon as I can, and you can earn some money. Anyway, goodbye for now, and come and see me in the morning, and we’ll discuss how to make a start.”

Alexander Fyodorych was on his way out when Pyotr Ivanych said: “Listen, wouldn’t you like some supper?”

“Well, yes Uncle, I wouldn’t mind…”

“I don’t have anything.”

Alexander thought to himself, “Then what’s the point of his asking me?”

“I don’t have meals at home, and the inns are closed now,” his uncle continued. “So this is your first lesson – and you had better learn from it. Back where you’re from, people get up and go to bed by the sun, they eat and drink at the bidding of nature; when it’s cold they put on a hat and earmuffs, and don’t give the matter a second thought; when it’s light, it must be daytime, when it’s dark it must be night-time. There, when your eyes close, I’m still at work; at the end of the month I have to do the books. There, you breathe fresh air all year round; here, it’s a luxury that costs money – and that’s the way it is with everything! Polar opposites!

“Now, people here don’t eat supper, especially at their own expense – or at mine, for that matter. That could even prove useful, because it means that you won’t be tossing and turning at night, and I don’t have time to tuck you in and make the sign of the cross over you.”

“That will be easy to get used to, Uncle…”

“Let’s hope so. But where you come from, the old ways still persist. You turn up at someone’s house at midnight and they’ll improvise some supper for you on the spot, isn’t that right?”

“But, Uncle, I hope you won’t deny that that’s a traditional Russian virtue…”

“Let me stop you right there! What do you mean, ‘virtue’? Those people are so bored that they will welcome any creature that shows up at their door: ‘How nice to see you! Eat as much as you like, but please relieve our tedium and entertain us, help us to kill time, your very presence will give us something new to look at; and we won’t stint on the food: it costs us absolutely nothing…’ What a positively revolting virtue!”

So Alexander went to bed and tried to figure out what kind of person his uncle was. He remembered the whole conversation; most of it he didn’t understand, and the rest he didn’t believe.

“So there’s something wrong with the way I speak!” he thought. “And love and friendship aren’t eternal? Uncle must be making fun of me. Can there really be such a different code of conduct here? If Sofia liked anything about me, surely it was my eloquence? And her love isn’t really eternal?… And people here really don’t eat supper?”

He spent a long time tossing and turning in bed, his head full of disturbing thoughts, and his empty belly stopped him from sleeping.

Two weeks went by.

As the days passed, Pyotr Ivanych grew more and more pleased with his nephew.

“He does have tact,” he said to one of his partners in the firm, “and that’s the last thing I ever thought I would say about a boy from the country. He doesn’t make a nuisance of himself, and never comes to see me unless I call him – and when he sees that he has overstayed his welcome, he leaves immediately; he never asks for money: a quiet lad.