the point; please remember that it is after
nine o'clock."

"Very well, gentlemen--very well," replied the prince. "At first I
received the news with mistrust, then I said to myself that I might be
mistaken, and that Pavlicheff might possibly have had a son. But I was
absolutely amazed at the readiness with which the son had revealed
the secret of his birth at the expense of his mother's honour. For
Tchebaroff had already menaced me with publicity in our interview...."

"What nonsense!" Lebedeff's nephew interrupted violently.

"You have no right--you have no right!" cried Burdovsky.

"The son is not responsible for the misdeeds of his father; and the
mother is not to blame," added Hippolyte, with warmth.

"That seems to me all the more reason for sparing her," said the prince
timidly.

"Prince, you are not only simple, but your simplicity is almost past the
limit," said Lebedeff's nephew, with a sarcastic smile.

"But what right had you?" said Hippolyte in a very strange tone.

"None--none whatever," agreed the prince hastily. "I admit you are right
there, but it was involuntary, and I immediately said to myself that my
personal feelings had nothing to do with it,--that if I thought it right
to satisfy the demands of Mr. Burdovsky, out of respect for the memory
of Pavlicheff, I ought to do so in any case, whether I esteemed Mr.
Burdovsky or not. I only mentioned this, gentlemen, because it seemed so
unnatural to me for a son to betray his mother's secret in such a way.
In short, that is what convinced me that Tchebaroff must be a rogue, and
that he had induced Mr. Burdovsky to attempt this fraud."

"But this is intolerable!" cried the visitors, some of them starting to
their feet.

"Gentlemen, I supposed from this that poor Mr. Burdovsky must be a
simple-minded man, quite defenceless, and an easy tool in the hands
of rogues. That is why I thought it my duty to try and help him
as 'Pavlicheff's son'; in the first place by rescuing him from the
influence of Tchebaroff, and secondly by making myself his friend. I
have resolved to give him ten thousand roubles; that is about the sum
which I calculate that Pavlicheff must have spent on me."

"What, only ten thousand!" cried Hippolyte.

"Well, prince, your arithmetic is not up to much, or else you are mighty
clever at it, though you affect the air of a simpleton," said Lebedeff's
nephew.

"I will not accept ten thousand roubles," said Burdovsky.

"Accept, A