Panshin bowed to him without speaking, but the lady of the house cried, "Well, this is unexpected!" and slightly frowned.

Lavretsky sat down near her, and began to look at her cards.
"Do you know how to play picquet ?" she asked him with a kind of hidden vexation, and then declared that she had thrown away a wrong card.
Panshin counted ninety, and began calmly and urbanely taking tricks with a severe and dignified expression of face.

So it befits diplomatists to play; this was no doubt how he played in Petersburg with some influential dignitary, whom he wished to impress with a favourable opinion of his solidity and maturity.

"A hundred and one, a hundred and two, hearts, a hundred and three," sounded his voice in measured tones, and Lavretsky could not decide whether it had a ring of reproach or of self-satisfaction.
"Can I see Marfa Timofyevna ?" he inquired, observing that Panshin was setting to work to shuffle the cards with still more dignity.

There was not a trace of the artist to be detected in him now.
"I think you can.