“For instance?” asked the prince.

“Well, for instance ... for instance ... well, now, for instance, making artificial flowers.  Yes, and still better, to get a place as a flower clerk.  A charming business, clean and nice.”

“Taste is necessary,” Simanovsky dropped carelessly.

“There are no inborn tastes, as well as abilities.  Otherwise talents would be born only in refined, highly educated society; while artists would be born only to artists, and singers to singers; but we don’t see this.  However, I won’t argue.  Well, if not a flower girl, then something else.  I, for instance, saw not long ago in a store show window a miss sitting, and some sort of a little machine with foot-power before her.”

“V-va!  Again a little machine!” said the prince, smiling and looking at Lichonin.

“Stop it, Nijeradze,” answered Lichonin, quietly but sternly.  “You ought to be ashamed.”

“Blockhead!” Soloviev threw at him, and continued.

“So, then, the machine moves back and forth, while upon it, on a square frame, is stretched a thin canvas, and really, I don’t know how it’s contrived, I didn’t grasp it; only the miss guides some metallic thingamajig over the screen, and there comes out a fine drawing in vari-coloured silks.  Just imagine, a lake, all grown over with pond-lilies with their white corollas and yellow stamens, and great green leaves all around.  And on the water two white swans are floating toward each other, and in the background is a dark park with an alley; and all this shows finely, distinctly, as on a picture from life.  And I became so interested that I went in on purpose to find out how much it costs.  It proved to be just the least bit dearer than an ordinary sewing machine, and it’s sold on terms.  And any one who can sew a little on a common machine can learn this art in an hour.  And there’s a great number of charming original designs.  And the main thing is that such work is very readily taken for fire-screens, albums, lamp-shades, curtains and other rubbish, and the pay is decent.”

“After all, that’s a sort of a trade, too,” agreed Lichonin, and stroked his beard in meditation.  “But, to confess, here’s what I wanted to do.  I wanted to open up for her ... to open up a little cook-shop or dining room, the very tiniest to start with, of course, but one in which all the food is cheap, clean and tasty.  For it’s absolutely all the same to many students where they dine and what they eat.  There are almost never enough places to go round in the students’ dining room.  And so we may succeed, perhaps, in pulling in all our acquaintances and friends, somehow.”

“That’s true,” said the prince, “but impractical as well; we’ll begin to board on credit.  And you know what accurate payers we are.  A practical man, a knave, is needed for such an undertaking; and if a woman, then one with a pike’s teeth; and even then a man must absolutely stick right at her back.  Really, it’s not for Lichonin to stand at the counter and to watch that somebody shouldn’t suddenly wine and dine and slip away.”