d then, all of a sudden,
he will take to staring into a corner as though he were completely
benumbed.... It was enough to scare one!

Although he had threatened to leave the house if I did not leave him in
peace, yet surely I was his father! My last hope was ruined--yet I was
to hold my tongue! So one day, availing myself of an opportunity, I
began to entreat Yakoff with tears, I began to adjure him by the memory
of his dead mother:

"Tell me," I said, "as thy father in the flesh and in the spirit, Yasha,
what aileth thee? Do not kill me; explain thyself, lighten thy heart!
Can it be that thou hast ruined some Christian soul? If so, repent!"

"Well, dear father," he suddenly says to me (this took place toward
nightfall), "thou hast moved me to compassion. I will tell thee the
whole truth. I have not ruined any Christian soul--but my own soul is
going to perdition."

"How is that?"

"In this way...." And thereupon Yakoff raised his eyes to mine for the
first time.--"It is going on four months now," he began.... But suddenly
he broke off and began to breathe heavily.

"What about the fourth month? Tell me, do not make me suffer!"

"This is the fourth month that I have been seeing him."

"Him? Who is he?"

"Why, the person ... whom it is awkward to mention at night."

I fairly turned cold all over and fell to quaking.

"What?!" I said, "dost thou see _him_?"

"Yes."

"And dost thou see him now?"

"Yes."

"Where?" And I did not dare to turn round, and we both spoke in a
whisper.

"Why, yonder ..." and he indicated the spot with his eyes ... "yonder,
in the corner."

I summoned up my courage and looked at the corner; there was nothing
there.

"Why, good gracious, there is nothing there, Yakoff!"

"_Thou_ dost not see him, but I do."

Again I glanced round ... again nothing. Suddenly there recurred to my
mind the little old man in the forest who had given him the chestnut.
"What does he look like?" I said.... "Is he green?"

"No, he is not green, but black."

"Has he horns?"

"No, he is like a man,--only all black."

As Yakoff speaks he displays his teeth in a grin and turns as pale as a
corpse, and huddles up to me in terror; and his eyes seem on the point
of popping out of his head, and he keeps staring at the corner.

"Why, it is a shadow glimmering faintly," I say. "That is the blackness
from a shadow, but thou mistakest it for a man."

"Nothing of the sort!--And I see his eyes: now he