There was an easel in the middle of the room and an old man sitting at it was bald but had very thick eyebrows and moustaches.
[A few years earlier Proshin wasn't a bald one-legged old man... He believed he had luck in 1937, even though he, only accustomed to the political work, had to roll and load round timber... He severely bumped and scraped his knee and was hospitalised. But his recovery was fast, so he quietly started irritating the injury... It resulted in amputation. Thus he got rid of rolling the logs but faced not a gaudy lot of carving of wooden spoons in Nemirovsky's team... But Proshin suddenly showed "artistic talent". Zarutsky accepted him in the pokering workshop and established the decoration of consumer goods. Proshin pokered "pipes" and "wood lilies" on cigarette cases and spend his spare time daubing "carpets" and "paintings" for civilian employees who provided him, via Zarutsky, with materials and paid with food.]