Solomin was the only son of a deacon and had five sisters, who were all married to priests or deacons.He was also destined for the church, but with his father's consent threw it up and began to study mathematics, as he had taken a special liking to mechanics.He entered a factory of which the owner was an Englishman, who got to love him like his own son.This man supplied him with the means of going to Manchester, where he stayed for two years, acquiring an excellent knowledge of the English language.With the Moscow merchant he had fallen in but a short time ago.He was exacting with his subordinates, a manner he had acquired in England, but they liked him nevertheless, and treated him as one of themselves.His father was very proud of him, and used to speak of him as a steady sort of man, but was very grieved that he did not marry and settle down.
During the discussion, as we have already said, Solomin sat silent the whole time; but when Markelov began enlarging upon the hopes they put on the factory workers, Solomin remarked, in his usual laconic way, that they must not depend too much on them, as factory workers in Russia were not what they were abroad."They are an extremely mild set of people here.""And what about the peasants?"
"The peasants? There are a good many sweaters and money-lenders among them now, and there are likely to be more in time.This kind only look to their own interests, and as for the others, they are as ignorant as sheep.""Then where are we to turn to?" Solomin smiled.
"Seek and ye shall find."
There was a constant smile on his lips, but the smile was as full of meaning as the man himself.With Nejdanov he behaved in a very peculiar manner.He was attracted to the young student and felt an almost tender sympathy for him.At one part of the discussion, where Nejdanov broke out into a perfect torrent of words, Solomin got up quietly, moved across the room with long strides, and shut a window that was standing open just above Nejdanov's head.
"You might catch cold," he observed, in answer to the orator's look of amazement.
Nejdanov began to question him about his factory, asking if any cooperative experiments had been made, if anything had been done so that the workers might come in for a share of the profits.
"My dear fellow!" Solomin exclaimed, "I instituted a school and a tiny hospital, and even then the owner struggled like a bear!"Solomin lost his temper once in real earnest on hearing of some legal injustice about the suppression of a workman's association.
He banged his powerful fist on the table so that everything on it trembled, including a forty-pound weight, which happened to be lying near the ink pot.
When Markelov and Nejdanov began discussing ways and means of executing their plans, Solomin listened with respectful curiosity, but did not pronounce a single word.Their talk lasted until four o'clock in the morning, when they had touched upon almost everything under the sun.Markelov again spoke mysteriously of Kisliakov's untiring journeys and his letters, which were becoming more interesting than ever.He promised to show them to Nejdanov, saying that he would probably have to take them away with him, as they were rather lengthy and written in an illegible handwriting.He assured him that there was a great deal of learning in them and even poetry, not of the frivolous kind, but poetry with a socialistic tendency!
From Kisliakov, Markelov went on to the military, to adjutants, Germans, even got so far as his articles on the shortcomings of the artillery, whilst Nejdanov spoke about the antagonism between Heine and Borne, Proudhon, and realism in art.Solomin alone sat listening and reflecting, the smile never leaving his lips.
Without having uttered a single word, he seemed to understand better than the others where the essential difficulty lay.
The hour struck four.Nejdanov and Markelov could scarcely stand on their legs from exhaustion, while Solomin was as fresh as could be.They parted for the night, having agreed to go to town the next day to see the merchant Golushkin, an Old Believer, who was said to be very zealous and promised proselytes.
Solomin doubted whether it was worth while going, but agreed to go in the end.
