‘not without connections.’ What can you want with me, then, unless you’ve some special object?”

“That’s true that I have friends here,” Svidriga�lov admitted, not replying to the chief point. “I’ve met some already. I’ve been lounging about for the last three days, and I’ve seen them, or they’ve seen me. That’s a matter of course. I am well dressed and reckoned not a poor man; the emancipation of the serfs hasn’t affected me; my property consists chiefly of forests and water meadows. The revenue has not fallen off; but... I am not going to see them, I was sick of them long ago. I’ve been here three days and have called on no one... What a town it is! How has it come into existence among us, tell me that? A town of officials and