and old miscellaneous furniture, smelt to tobacco, sour cabbage, and olive oil. Petunikoff looked around him with a grimace. Vaviloff glanced up at the icon, with a sigh, and then they scrutinized each other, and both seemed to be favorably impressed. Petunikoff liked Vaviloff’s frankly thievish eyes, and Vaviloff the open, cold, determined face of Petunikoff, with its broad cheekbones and white teeth.

“I presume you guess what I am about to say to you,” began Petunikoff.

“The lawsuit?…I presume?” remarked the ex-sergeant respectfully.

“Exactly! I am glad to see you are not beating about the bush, but going straight to the point like a straight- forward man,” said Petunikoff, encouragingly.

“I am a soldier,” answered Vaviloff, with a modest air.

“That is easy to see, and I am sure we shall be able to settle this job quickly and without much trouble.”

“Just so.”

“Good! You have the law on your side, and will, of course, win your case. I want to tell you this from the first.”

“Many thanks,” said the sergeant, blinking in order to hide the smile in his eyes.

“But tell me, why did you have to make the acquaintance of your future neighbors in this brusque manner, through the law courts?”

Vaviloff shrugged his shoulders and did not answer.

“It would have been better to come straight to us and settle the matter peacefully, eh? What do you think?”

“That would have been better, of course, but you see there is a hitch…I was not acting on my own, but on the advice of others.…I found out later that it would have been better if…But it was too late.”

“Oh! I suppose some lawyer advised you on this?”

“Someone of that sort.”

“Aha! Do you really wish to settle the affair peacefully?”

“With all my heart!” cried the soldier.

Petunikoff was silent for a moment, then looked at him, and suddenly asked, coldly and dryly, “And why do you wish to do so?”

Vaviloff did not expect such a question, and therefore had no reply ready. In his opinion the question was quite a futile one, under the circumstances, so he grinned at young Petunikoff, feeling very superior.

“That is easy to understand. Men should try to live peacefully with one another.”

“Oh, no!” interrupted Petunikoff, “that is not exactly the reason why. As far as I can see, you do not distinctly understand why you wish to be on good terms with us. …I will tell you.”

The soldier was a little surprised. This youngster, dressed in a checked suit, in which he looked slightly ridiculous, spoke as if he were Colonel Rakshin, of happy memory, who used to knock three of the soldiers’ teeth out every time he was angry.