Barsukova smiled artfully and asked: 

“Again a wife?”

“No.  But she’s of the nobility.”

“Then that means unpleasantnesses with the police again?”

“Ach!  My God!  I don’t take big money from you; all the three for a lousy thousand roubles.”

“Well, let’s talk frankly; five hundred.  I don’t want to buy a cat in a bag.”

“It seems, Madam Barsukova, that it isn’t the first time you and I have done business together, I won’t deceive you and will bring her here right away.  Only I beg you not to forget that you’re my aunt, and please work in that direction.  I won’t be more than three days here in the city.”

Madam Barsukova, with all her breasts, bellies and chins, began to sway merrily.

“We won’t dicker over trifles.  All the more so since you don’t deceive me, nor I you.  There’s a great demand for women now.  What would you say, Mister Horizon, if I offered you some red wine?”

“Thank you, Madam Barsukova, with pleasure.”

“Let’s talk a while like old friends.  Tell me, how much do you make a year?”

“Ach, madam, what shall I say?  Twelve, twenty thousand, approximately.  But think what tremendous expenses there are in constantly travelling.”

“Do you put away a little?”

“Well, that’s trifles; some two or three thousand a year.”

“I thought ten, twenty ...”

Horizon grew wary.  He sensed that he was beginning to be drawn out and asked insidiously: 

“But why does this interest you?”

Anna Michailovna pressed the button of an electric bell and ordered the dressy maid to bring coffee with steamed cream and a bottle of Chambertaine.  She knew the tastes of Horizon.  Then she asked: 

“Do you know Mr. Shepsherovich?”

Horizon simply pounced upon her.

“My God!  Who don’t know Shepsherovich!  This is a god, this is a genius!”

And, having become animated, forgetting that he was being dragged into a trap, he began speaking exaltedly: 

“Just imagine what Shepsherovich did last year!  He carried to Argentine thirty women from Kovno, Vilno, Zhitomir.  Each one of them he sold at a thousand roubles—­a total, madam—­count it—­of thirty thousand!  Do you think Shepsherovich calmed down with this?  For this money, in order to repay his expenses on the steamer, he bought several negresses and stuck them about in Moscow, Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkov.  But, you know, madam, this isn’t a man, but an eagle.  There’s a man who can do business!”

Barsukova caressingly laid her hand on his knee.  She had been waiting for this moment and said to him amicably: 

“And so I propose to you, Mr.——­however, I don’t know how you are called now...”

“Horizon, let’s say...”

“So I propose to you, Mr. Horizon—­could you find some innocent girls among yours?  There’s an enormous demand for them now.  I’m playing an open hand with you.  We won’t stop at money.  Now it’s in fashion.  Notice, Horizon, your lady clients will be returned to you in exactly the same state in which they were.  This, you understand, is a little depravity, which I can in no way make out ...”