“No, I am wanted no longer, and am to be turned out. What good are promises and gratitude? Natalia Nicolaevna” — here he laid his hand upon his heart — ”I love and revere, but what can SHE I do here? Her will is powerless in this house.”

He flung a strip of leather on the floor with an angry gesture.

“Yet I know who has been playing tricks here, and why I am no longer wanted. It is because I do not flatter and toady as certain people do. I am in the habit of speaking the truth in all places and to all persons,” he continued proudly, “God be with these children, for my leaving them will benefit them little, whereas I — well, by God’s help I may be able to earn a crust of bread somewhere. Nicola, eh?”