esterday and all today. He shows
decided bacchanalian predilections at one time, and at another is
tearful and sensitive, but at any moment he is liable to paroxysms of
such rage that I assure you, prince, I am quite alarmed. I am not
a military man, you know. Yesterday we were sitting together in
the tavern, and the lining of my coat was--quite accidentally, of
course--sticking out right in front. The general squinted at it, and
flew into a rage. He never looks me quite in the face now, unless he is
very drunk or maudlin; but yesterday he looked at me in such a way that
a shiver went all down my back. I intend to find the purse tomorrow; but
till then I am going to have another night of it with him."

"What's the good of tormenting him like this?" cried the prince.

"I don't torment him, prince, I don't indeed!" cried Lebedeff, hotly. "I
love him, my dear sir, I esteem him; and believe it or not, I love him
all the better for this business, yes--and value him more."

Lebedeff said this so seriously that the prince quite lost his temper
with him.

"Nonsense! love him and torment him so! Why, by the very fact that he
put the purse prominently before you, first under the chair and then
in your lining, he shows that he does not wish to deceive you, but is
anxious to beg your forgiveness in this artless way. Do you hear? He is
asking your pardon. He confides in the delicacy of your feelings, and
in your friendship for him. And you can allow yourself to humiliate so
thoroughly honest a man!"

"Thoroughly honest, quite so, prince, thoroughly honest!" said Lebedeff,
with flashing eyes. "And only you, prince, could have found so very
appropriate an expression. I honour you for it, prince. Very well,
that's settled; I shall find the purse now and not tomorrow. Here, I
find it and take it out before your eyes! And the money is all right.
Take it, prince, and keep it till tomorrow, will you? Tomorrow or next
day I'll take it back again. I think, prince, that the night after
its disappearance it was buried under a bush in the garden. So I
believe--what do you think of that?"

"Well, take care you don't tell him to his face that you have found the
purse. Simply let him see that it is no longer in the lining of your
coat, and form his own conclusions."

"Do you think so? Had I not just better tell him I have found it, and
pretend I never guessed where it was?"

"No, I don't think so," said the prince, thoughtfully; "it's too