of them Pierre noticed a large cast iron ring with a seal representing a death’s head. The stranger sat without stirring, either resting or, as it seemed to Pierre, sunk in profound and calm meditation.
His servant was also a yellow, wrinkled old man, without beard or mustache, evidently not because he was shaven but because they had never grown.
This active old servant was unpacking the traveler’s canteen and preparing tea. He brought in a boiling samovar.
When everything was ready, the stranger opened his eyes, moved to the table, filled a tumbler with tea for himself and one for the beardless old man to whom he passed it.
Pierre began to feel a sense of uneasiness, and the need, even the inevitability, of entering into conversation with this stranger.
The servant brought back his tumbler turned upside down, with an unfinished