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Rh and bowed, but Sergyeï Ivanovitch paid no attention to them; he had had so much to do with volunteers that he already knew this general type, and it did not interest him. But Katavasof, who on account of his pedagogical occupations had not enjoyed any opportunity to observe the men who volunteered, was very much interested, and asked his friend about them.

Sergyeï Ivanovitch advised him to look into their carriage and talk with some of them.

At the next station, Katavasof followed this advice. As soon as the train stopped, he went into the second-class carriage, and made the acquaintance of the volunteers.

Some of them were seated in a corner of the carriage, talking noisily, aware that they were attracting the attention of the other passengers and of Katavasof, whom they saw come in. The tall, sunken-chested young man was talking louder than the others. He was evidently tipsy, and was telling the story of something which had happened in their establishment.

Opposite him sat an old officer in the Austrian military jacket of the Guard uniform. He was listening with a smile to the narrator, and occasionally prompting him. A third volunteer, in an artillery uniform, was sitting on a box near them. A fourth was asleep.

Katavasof entered into conversation with the youth, and learned that he had been a rich merchant in Moscow, who, before he was twenty-two years old, had succeeded in squandering a considerable fortune. Katavasof did not like him, because he was effeminate, conceited, and sickly. He evidently felt, especially now that he was drunk, that he was doing a heroic deed; and he boasted in the most disagreeable manner.

The second, a retired officer, also impressed Katavasof unpleasantly; he was a man who had apparently tried his hand at everything; he had worked on a railway, and had been director of an estate, and had established a factory; and he talked of everything without any necessity of doing so, and often used words which showed his ignorance.