Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/61

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
VIRGIN SOIL

after him. I am not fit for that─and in fact I don't want to tie myself down, I don't want to lose my freedom.'

Sipyagin waved his hand lightly in the air as though driving away a fly.

'Don't be uneasy. . . . You 're not made of that clay; and I don't want any one to look after him either─I am trying to find a teacher, and I have found him. Well, now, how about terms? financial considerations, filthy lucre?

Nezhdanov was at a loss what to say. . . .

'Come,' said Sipyagin, bending his whole person forward and affectionately touching Nezhdanov's knee with his finger-tips, 'between gentlemen such questions are settled in a couple of words. I offer you a hundred roubles a month; travelling expenses there and back are my affair, of course. You agree?'

Nezhdanov blushed again.

'That is far more than I meant to ask . . . I———'

'Very good, very good . . .' interposed Sipyagin . . . I look on the matter as settled, then . . . and on you as one of my household.' He got up from his chair and suddenly grew bright and expansive as though he had received a present. In all his gestures there appeared a certain affable familiarity, even playfulness. 'We will set off in a day or two,' he said in an easy tone;

35