w with a long face. She was
nearly bursting with rage, but there was nothing to do, and she was
obliged to content herself with whispering hoarsely, "Rascal! rascal!
jailbird! thief!" whenever she passed me. My aunt's reproaches were a
great delight to me, and it was also very pleasant whenever we went by
the garden fence to throw an apparently indifferent glance at the spot
beneath the apple tree where the watch rested, and also, if David was
by, to exchange with him a knowing wink.
My aunt first tried to set Trankwillitatin against me, but I made
David help me. He spoke up to the tall student, and told him he'd cut
him open with a knife if he didn't leave me alone. Trankwillitatin
was frightened, for, although my aunt called him a grenadier and a
cavalier, he was not remarkable for bravery.
But you don't suppose I have come to the end of my story yet? No, it's
not yet finished; only, in order to continue it, I must introduce a
new person, and to introduce this new person I must go back a little.
XI.
My father was for a long time on very friendly and even intimate terms
with a former official, named Latkin, a poor man, slightly lame, with
shy, queer manners--one of those beings of whom people say the hand of
God is upon them. He had the same business as my father and Nastasa:
he was also a private "agent" and commissioner, but as he had neither
an imposing exterior nor a fluent tongue, nor much self-confidence,
he could not make up his mind to act independently, and so formed a
partnership with my father. His handwriting was wonderful, he had a
thorough knowledge of law, and was perfectly at home in all the ins
and outs of lawsuits and office-practice. He was connected with my
father in several business operations, and they shared their gains and
losses, so that it seemed as if nothing could impair their friendship.
But one day it was brought to an abrupt conclusion once for all: my
father quarreled irreconcilably with his former associate. If Latkin
had snapped a profitable bit of my father's business, as Nastasa did
afterward, he would have been no more angry with him than he was with
Nastasa, perhaps even less. But Latkin, under the influence of some
unexplained, incomprehensible feeling of envy or greed, and perhaps
also moved by a momentary feeling of honesty, had played him false in
exposing him to their patron, a rich young merchant, by opening the
careless young man's eyes to some sharp practice
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