u still ill?" I asked him.

"No; I am well," he answered abruptly.

"Art thou bored?"

"Why should I be bored?"--But he turned away and would not look me in
the eye.

"Or hast thou grown melancholy again?"--To this he made no reply.

On the following day my aunt ran into my study in a state of great
excitement, and declared that she and her niece would leave my house if
Misha were to remain in it.

"Why so?"

"Why, we feel afraid of him.... He is not a man,--he is a wolf, a
regular wolf. He stalks and stalks about, saying never a word, and has
such a wild look.... He all but gnashes his teeth. My Katya is such a
nervous girl, as thou knowest.... She took a great interest in him the
first day.... I am afraid for her and for myself...."

I did not know what reply to make to my aunt. But I could not expel
Misha, whom I had invited in.

He himself extricated me from this dilemma.

That very day--before I had even left my study--I suddenly heard a dull
and vicious voice behind me.

"Nikolai Nikolaitch, hey there, Nikolai Nikolaitch!"

I looked round. In the doorway stood Misha, with a terrible, lowering,
distorted visage.

"Nikolai Nikolaitch," he repeated ... (it was no longer "dear uncle").

"What dost thou want?"

"Let me go ... this very moment!"

"What?"

"Let me go, or I shall commit a crime,--set the house on fire or cut
some one's throat."--Misha suddenly fell to shaking.--"Order them to
restore my garments, and give me a cart to carry me to the highway, and
give me a trifling sum of money!"

"But art thou dissatisfied with anything?" I began.

"I cannot live thus!" he roared at the top of his voice.--"I cannot live
in your lordly, thrice-damned house! I hate, I am ashamed to live so
tranquilly!... How do _you_ manage to endure it?!"

"In other words," I interposed, "thou wishest to say that thou canst not
live without liquor...."

"Well, yes! well, yes!" he yelled again.--"Only let me go to my
brethren, to my friends, to the beggars!... Away from your noble,
decorous, repulsive race!"

I wanted to remind him of his promise on oath, but the criminal
expression of Misha's face, his unrestrained voice, the convulsive
trembling of all his limbs--all this was so frightful that I made haste
to get rid of him. I informed him that he should receive his clothing at
once, that a cart should be harnessed for him; and taking from a casket
a twenty-ruble bank-note, I laid it on the table. Misha was