This elderly, sedate, and majestic man was a very convenient
guest, because he never lingered in the house for more than twenty
minutes, fearing to let his train go by; and, even so, glanced at
his watch all the while. During this time he regularly drank down
four bottles of beer, and, going away, infallibly gave the girl
half a rouble for candy and Simeon twenty kopecks for drink-money.
Kolya Gladishev was not alone, but with a comrade of the same
school, Petrov, who was stepping over the threshold of a brothel
for the first time, having given in to the tempting persuasions of
Gladishev. Probably, during these minutes, he found himself in the
same wild, absurd, feverish state which Kolya himself had gone
through a year and a half ago, when his legs had shook, his mouth
had grown dry, and the lights of the lamps had danced before him
in revolving wheels.
Simeon took their great-coats from them and hid them separately,
on the side, that the shoulder straps and the buttons might not be
seen.
It must be said, that this stern man, who did not approve of
students because of their free-and-easy facetiousness and
incomprehensible style in conversation, also did not like when
just such boys in uniform appeared in the establishment.
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