"Tolstoy, Leo - Albert" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolstoy Leo)

Zakhar smiled.

"One can well call him an 'artist', sir. [Footnote: In addition to its
proper meaning, the word "artist" was used in Russian to denote a thief, or
a man dextrous at anything, good or bad.] As soon as he woke he asked for
Madeira, and then he amused himself with the cook and with the neighbour's
manservant. He is so funny. However, he is good-natured. I gave him tea and
brought him dinner. He would not eat anything himself, but kept inviting me
to do so. But when it comes to playing the violin, even Izler has few
artists like him. One may well befriend such a man. When he played Down the
Little Mother Volga to us it was as if a man were weeping. It was too
beautiful. Even the servants from all the flats came to our back entrance
to hear him."

"Well, and did you get him dressed?" his master interrupted him.

"Of course. I gave him a night-shirt of yours and put my own paletot on
him. A man like that is worth helping - he really is a dear fellow!" Zakhar
smiled.

"He kept asking me what your rank is, whether you have influential
acquaintances, and how many serfs you own."

"Well, all right, but now he must be found, and in future don't let him
have anything to drink, or it'll be worse for him."

"That's true," Zakhar interjected. "He is evidently feeble; our old master
had a clerk like that..."

But Delesov who had long known the story of the clerk who took hopelessly
to drink, did not let Zakhar finish, and telling him to get everything
ready for the night, sent him out to find Albert and bring him back.

He then went to bed and put out the light, but could not fall asleep for a
long time, thinking about Albert. "Though it may seem strange to many of my
acquaintances," he thought, "yet one so seldom does anything for others
that one ought to thank God when such an opportunity presents itself, and I
will not miss it. I will do anything - positively anything in my power - to
help him. He may not be mad at all, but only under the influence of drink.
It won't cost me very much. Where there's enough for one there's enough for
two. Let him live with me awhile, then we'll find him a place or arrange a
concert for him and pull him out of the shallows, and then see what
happens."

He experienced a pleasant feeling of self-satisfaction after this
reflection.

"Really I'm not altogether a bed fellow," he thought. "Not at all bad even
- when I compare myself with others."