On learning from the porter's wife, who came out to them, that Mihailov saw visitors at his studio, but that at that moment he was in his lodging only a couple of steps off, they sent her to him with their cards, asking permission to see his picture.

The artist Mihailov was, as always, at work when the cards of Count Vronsky and Golenishtchev were brought to him.

In the morning he had been working in his studio at his big picture.