"To be sure! We met at Rossi's, do you remember, at that _soiree_ when that Italian lady recited--the new Rachel?" Golenishtchev answered easily, removing his eyes without the slightest regret from the picture and turning to the artist.

Noticing, however, that Mihailov was expecting a criticism of the picture, he said: "Your picture has got on a great deal since I saw it last time; and what strikes me particularly now, as it did then, is the figure of Pilate.

One so knows the man: a good-natured, capital fellow, but an official through and through, who does not know what it is he's doing.

But I fancy..." All Mihailov's mobile face beamed at once; his eyes sparkled.

He tried to say something, but he could not speak for excitement, and pretended to be coughing.