B614 <=> B616 [BTG XXXIV Russia, p. 615]
“And not ceasing to look at the said figure and giving himself up to the feeling of his rapture, or, more strictly speaking, with all his feelings coursing together through him, he further continued:
“’I myself am very much interested in all ancient art, but chiefly in Chinese, and that is why, of the five rooms given up to my collection, three are filled with productions of ancient Chinese work alone.’
“Continuing to speak in this strain about his adoration for the production of ancient Chinese masters, he without ceremony again sat down in my armchair and began to enlarge upon antiques in general, their value and where they are to be found.
“During this conversation he suddenly and hastily took his watch from his pocket, automatically looked at it, stood up quickly and, once on his feet, said:
“’How vexing! I am obliged to interrupt our chat, interesting to the highest degree, as I must hurry home where doubtless the great friend of my youth and his charming wife are already waiting for me.
“’He is here for a short while, passing through on his way abroad from the provinces, and I have not seen him since we served in the same regiment and received different appointments, I to the Court, and he to a civil post.’
“He afterward further added: ‘And as regards the instructions I am required to give you, about which I had come to you, I will send my adjutant this very day, and he will explain everything to you, and no worse than I perhaps would.’
“After this, with fussy self-importance, he left me.
“And indeed, on the evening of the very same day, as His Noble Excellency had promised me, one of his adjutants came to my house who was still, as is said there, a ‘young man,’ that is a being who had only quite recently attained to responsible age. This adjutant of his who came had the very marked specific type of a terrestrial three-brained being whom in recent times among your favorites one has often come across, and who is very well defined by the words mama’s and papa’s darling.