,
in a coat like this--one has to dance about a bit! The frost--at Christmas
time--brrr!--My hands are frozen, and my feet nipped--brrr!

MITYA. Warm yourself up, Lyubim Karpych.

LYUBIM KARPYCH. You will not drive me away, Mitya? If you do, I'll freeze
in the yard--I'll freeze like a dog.

MITYA. How could I? What are you saying?

LYUBIM KARPYCH. You see, Mitya, my brother turned me out. As long as I had
a little money, I strolled about in warm places; now I have no money, and
they won't let me come in anywhere. All I had was two francs and some-odd
centimes! Not a great capital! It wouldn't build a stone house! It wouldn't
buy a village! What could one do with such a capital? Where put it? Not
take it to a bank! So then I took this capital and drank it up!--squandered
it!--That's the way of it!

MITYA. Why do you drink, Lyubim Karpych? That makes you your own enemy.

LYUBIM KARPYCH. Why do I drink? From stupidity! Yes, from my own stupidity.
Why did you think I drank?

MITYA. You'd better stop it.

LYUBIM KARPYCH. It's impossible to stop; I've got started on this track.

MITYA. What track?

LYUBIM KARPYCH. Ah, well, listen--you're a kind soul--what this track was.
Only, you listen, take note of it. I was left when my father died, just
a kid, tall as a bean pole, a little fool of twenty. The wind whistled
through my head like an empty garret! My brother and I divided up things:
he took the factory himself, and gave me my share in money, drafts
and promissory notes. Well, now, how he divided with me is not our
business--God be his judge! Well, then I went to Moscow to get money on the
drafts. I had to go! One must see people and show oneself, and learn good
manners. Then again, I was such a handsome young man, and I'd never seen
the world, or spent the night in a private house. I felt I must try
everything! First thing, I got myself dressed like a dandy. "Know our
people!" says I. That is, I played the fool to a rarity! Of course, I
started to visit all the taverns: "_Schpeelen sie polka_! Give us a bottle
off the ice!" I got together enough friends to fill a pond! I went to the
theatres--

MITYA. Well, Lyubim Karpych, it must be very nice in the theatre.

LYUBIM KARPYCH. I kept going to see the tragedies; I liked them very much,
only I didn't see anything decently, and I didn't understand anything
because I was nearly always drunk. [_Rises_] "Drink beneath the dagger of
Prokop Lyapunov." [_Sits down_] By