“I consider, and I have embodied my views in a note on the subject, that in our day these immense salaries are evidence of the unsound economic assiette of our finances.”

“But what’s to be done?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “Suppose a bank director gets ten thousand⁠—well, he’s worth it; or an engineer gets twenty thousand⁠—after all, it’s a growing thing, you know!”