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Now he was the chief person in the warehouse, but still, as before, he did not know how large his fortune was, whether his business was doing well, how much the senior clerks were paid, and so on. Potchatkin and Makeitchev looked upon him as young and inexperienced, concealed a great deal from him, and whispered mysteriously every evening with his blind old father.
His name was Ivan Vassilitch Potchatkin, and he came from Kashira. Now, congratulating Laptev, he expressed himself as follows: "It's the reward of valour, for the female heart is a strong opponent." Another important person in the warehouse was a clerk called Makeitchev a stout, solid, fair man with whiskers and a perfectly bald head.
He walked away from the counter and began asking Makeitchev whether things had gone well while he was away, and whether anything new had turned up, and the clerk answered him respectfully, avoiding his eyes.
When Yulia went in they jumped up, and answered her questions timidly, looking up at her from under their brows like convicts. "Good heavens! What a horrid room you have!" she said, throwing up her hands. "Aren't you crowded here?" "Crowded, but not aggrieved," said Makeitchev. "We are greatly indebted to you, and will offer up our prayers for you to our Heavenly Father."
"The congruity of life with the conceit of the personality," said Potchatkin. And noticing that Yulia did not understand Potchatkin, Makeitchev hastened to explain: "We are humble people and must live according to our position." She inspected the boys' quarters, and then the kitchen, made acquaintance with the housekeeper, and was thoroughly dissatisfied.
Altogether the employees at Laptevs' had a very poor time of it, and this fact was a subject of conversation for the whole market. The worst of it was that the old man, Fyodor Stepanovitch, maintained something of an Asiatic despotism in his attitude to them. Thus, no one knew what wages were paid to the old man's favourites, Potchatkin and Makeitchev.
"It all depends upon the fluctuation of credit," Potchatkin answered after a moment's pause. "What do you understand by the fluctuation of credit?" Potchatkin began explaining, but Laptev could make nothing of it, and sent for Makeitchev.
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