He saw him as he went and came, then saw him suddenly turn, lift the end of his caftan and wipe his cheek on it.

What had happened?
An insolvent debtor had spit in his face; he bore it smilingly.

This smile was more repulsive to Count Abel than the great stain that resembled a human face.
"Children should be permitted to choose their fathers," he thought.

And yet this poor Samuel Brohl came very near living as happy and contented in the paternal mire as a fish in water.

Habit and practice reconcile one even to dirt; and there are people who eat and digest it.