A chance meeting, a service rendered, a happy phrase, a knack of facetious mimicry, and a man's career might be made in a trice.
So it had been with Bryantsev, whom Stepan Arkadyevitch had met the previous day, and who was one of the highest functionaries in government now.
There was some interest in official work like that.
The Petersburg attitude on pecuniary matters had an especially soothing effect on Stepan Arkadyevitch.