'Haven't you any other means?'
'None at all.'
'Well, try and get some work, take a post.'
'Why, you know I am provincial secretary. What sort of good job could be given me? They would pay me a wretched salary, and you see I have a wife and five children.'
'Well, take some private situation. Go in for being a steward.'
'Who would trust me with his estates? I have squandered my own.'
'Yes, but if one is threatened with hunger and death one must take some steps. I'll ask whether my brother could not get you a place through some one in the town.'
'No, Platon Mihailovitch,' said Hlobuev, sighing and pressing his hand warmly, 'I am no use for anything now. I have grown decrepit before I am old, and I am paying for my weakness in the past by a pain in my back and rheumatism in my shoulders. What could I do? Why should I plunder the government? Without me there are plenty of men in the government service who are there simply to make money. God forbid that to get myself a salary I should help to increase the taxes for the poorer class: it's hard enough for them to live as it is with such masses of blood-suckers. No, Platon Mihailovitch, I'll have nothing to do with them.'
'Here's a position,' thought Platonov, 'it's worse than my ennui!'
Meanwhile Skudronzhoglo and Tchitchikov,
