umerous grammatical blunders in it."

"That is all he thinks of!" cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.

"May I ask when this article was revised?" said Evgenie Pavlovitch to
Keller.

"Yesterday morning," he replied, "we had an interview which we all gave
our word of honour to keep secret."

"The very time when he was cringing before you and making protestations
of devotion! Oh, the mean wretches! I will have nothing to do with your
Pushkin, and your daughter shall not set foot in my house!"

Lizabetha Prokofievna was about to rise, when she saw Hippolyte
laughing, and turned upon him with irritation.

"Well, sir, I suppose you wanted to make me look ridiculous?"

"Heaven forbid!" he answered, with a forced smile. "But I am more than
ever struck by your eccentricity, Lizabetha Prokofievna. I admit that I
told you of Lebedeff's duplicity, on purpose. I knew the effect it would
have on you,--on you alone, for the prince will forgive him. He has
probably forgiven him already, and is racking his brains to find some
excuse for him--is not that the truth, prince?"

He gasped as he spoke, and his strange agitation seemed to increase.

"Well?" said Mrs. Epanchin angrily, surprised at his tone; "well, what
more?"

"I have heard many things of the kind about you...they delighted me... I
have learned to hold you in the highest esteem," continued Hippolyte.

His words seemed tinged with a kind of sarcastic mockery, yet he was
extremely agitated, casting suspicious glances around him, growing
confused, and constantly losing the thread of his ideas. All this,
together with his consumptive appearance, and the frenzied expression of
his blazing eyes, naturally attracted the attention of everyone present.

"I might have been surprised (though I admit I know nothing of the
world), not only that you should have stayed on just now in the company
of such people as myself and my friends, who are not of your class, but
that you should let these... young ladies listen to such a scandalous
affair, though no doubt novel-reading has taught them all there is to
know. I may be mistaken; I hardly know what I am saying; but surely
no one but you would have stayed to please a whippersnapper (yes,
a whippersnapper; I admit it) to spend the evening and take part in
everything--only to be ashamed of it tomorrow. (I know I express myself
badly.) I admire and appreciate it all extremely, though the expression
on the face of his excellency, your husband