“No⁠— Mr. Pavlicheff, who had been supporting me there, died a couple of years ago. I wrote to Mrs. General Epanchin at the time (she is a distant relative of mine), but she did not answer my letter. And so eventually I came back.”

“And where have you come to?”

“That is⁠—where am I going to stay? I⁠—I really don’t quite know yet, I⁠—”

Both the listeners laughed again.

“I suppose your whole setup is in that bundle, then?” asked the first.

“I bet anything it is!” exclaimed the red-nosed passenger, with extreme satisfaction, “and that he has precious little in the luggage van!⁠—though of course poverty is no crime⁠—we must remember that!”