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RUDIN ‘Very well. The third and last. I have only now got clear of number three. But am I not boring you, Mihail?’

‘Go on, go on.’

‘Well,’ began Rudin, ‘once the idea occurred to me at some leisure moment—I always had plenty of leisure moments—the idea occurred to me; I have knowledge enough, my intentions are good. I suppose even you will not deny me good intentions?’

‘I should think not!’

‘In all other directions I had failed more or less why should I not become an instructor, or speaking simply a teacher  rather than waste my life?’

Rudin stopped and sighed.

‘Rather than waste my life, would it not be better to try to pass on to others what I know; perhaps they may extract at least some use from my knowledge. My abilities are above the ordinary anyway, I am a master of language. So I resolved to devote myself to this new work. I had difficulty in obtaining a post; I did not want to give private lessons; there was nothing I could do in the lower schools. 246