- Three weeks later, and Poprishchin is still fuming about the wedding. He says just because Teplov is a kammerjunker, it doesn't mean he's anything special. He is still only a human being. He starts to wonder why he himself is still only a titular councillor.
- Maybe, he thinks, he's actually a count or a general, but only seems to be a titular councillor. After all, stranger things have happened.
- What if he showed up in a general's uniform one day? He fantasizes about what the director and Sophie would think of him then.