prefer impudent lies to
the stories of men of worth and long service. I know of some notes of
the year 1812, which--I have determined, prince, to leave this house,
Mr. Lebedeff's house."

The general looked significantly at his host.

"Of course you have your own lodging at Pavlofsk at--at your daughter's
house," began the prince, quite at a loss what to say. He suddenly
recollected that the general had come for advice on a most important
matter, affecting his destiny.

"At my wife's; in other words, at my own place, my daughter's house."

"I beg your pardon, I--"

"I leave Lebedeff's house, my dear prince, because I have quarrelled
with this person. I broke with him last night, and am very sorry that I
did not do so before. I expect respect, prince, even from those to whom
I give my heart, so to speak. Prince, I have often given away my heart,
and am nearly always deceived. This person was quite unworthy of the
gift."

"There is much that might be improved in him," said the prince,
moderately, "but he has some qualities which--though amid them one
cannot but discern a cunning nature--reveal what is often a diverting
intellect."

The prince's tone was so natural and respectful that the general could
not possibly suspect him of any insincerity.

"Oh, that he possesses good traits, I was the first to show, when I very
nearly made him a present of my friendship. I am not dependent upon his
hospitality, and upon his house; I have my own family. I do not attempt
to justify my own weakness. I have drunk with this man, and perhaps I
deplore the fact now, but I did not take him up for the sake of drink
alone (excuse the crudeness of the expression, prince); I did not make
friends with him for that alone. I was attracted by his good qualities;
but when the fellow declares that he was a child in 1812, and had his
left leg cut off, and buried in the Vagarkoff cemetery, in Moscow,
such a cock-and-bull story amounts to disrespect, my dear sir, to--to
impudent exaggeration."

"Oh, he was very likely joking; he said it for fun."

"I quite understand you. You mean that an innocent lie for the sake of a
good joke is harmless, and does not offend the human heart. Some people
lie, if you like to put it so, out of pure friendship, in order to amuse
their fellows; but when a man makes use of extravagance in order to show
his disrespect and to make clear how the intimacy bores him, it is time
for a man of honour to break off th