why I came to see you to-day? I came because I wanted to propose to you a visit to the Ekaterinhov. I have a conveyance of my own, and, inasmuch as, to-morrow, I must write an article on current events, I thought we might jointly look over my notes on the subject, and you might advise me as to any point omitted. We should enjoy the expedition, I think. Let us go."

"No, I am not well," said Oblomov with a frown, covering himself with the bedclothes. "But you might come and lunch with me to-day, and then talk. I have just experienced a couple of misfortunes."

"Ah! The whole of our staff is to lunch at St. George's,^[1] I fear, and then to go on to the festival. Also, at night I have my article to write, and the printer must receive the manuscript by daylight at the latest. Good-bye!"

"'At night I have my article to write,'" mused Oblomov after his friend's departure. "Then when does he sleep? However, he is making some five thousand roubles a year, so his work is so much bread and butter to him. Yet to think of being continually engaged in writing, in wasting one's intellect upon trifles, in changing one's opinions, in