Chapter XX
"WELL," Paklin was the first to begin, "we have been to the eighteenth century, now let us fly to the twentieth! Golushkin is such a go-ahead man that one can hardly count him as belonging to the nineteenth." "Why, do you know him?" "What a question! Did you know my poll-parrots?" "No, but you introduced us." "Well, then, introduce me. I don't suppose you have any secrets to talk over, and Golushkin is a hospitable man. You will see; he will be delighted to see a new face. We are not very formal here in S." "Yes," Markelov muttered, "I have certainly noticed an absence of formality about the people here." Paklin shook his head. "I suppose that was a hit for me. . . I can't help it. I deserve it, no doubt. But may I suggest, my new friend, that you throw off those sad, oppressive tho
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