This stung his vanity; and his indignation was roused, and he was frightened when he learned that his godfather had circulated a rumour in the business world that he, Foma, was out of his mind, and that, perhaps, it might become necessary to appoint a guardian for him.

Foma did not know the limits of his godfather's power, and did not venture to take anyone's counsel in this matter.

He was convinced that in the business world the old man was a power, and that he could do anything he pleased.

At first it was painful for him to feel Mayakin's hand over him, but later he became reconciled to this, renounced everything, and resumed his restless, drunken life, wherein there was only one consolation--the people.

With each succeeding day he became more and more convinced that they were more irrational and altogether worse than he--that they were not the masters of life, but its slaves, and that it was turning them around, bending and breaking them at its will, while they succumbed to it unfeelingly and resignedly, and none of them but he desired freedom.