ad taken a part, and an animated one, in the noisy conversation of
the company; but his animation was clearly the outcome of fever. His
talk was almost incoherent; he would break off in the middle of a
sentence which he had begun with great interest, and forget what he had
been saying. The prince discovered to his dismay that Hippolyte had been
allowed to drink two large glasses of champagne; the one now standing by
him being the third. All this he found out afterwards; at the moment he
did not notice anything, very particularly.

"Do you know I am specially glad that today is your birthday!" cried
Hippolyte.

"Why?"

"You'll soon see. D'you know I had a feeling that there would be a lot
of people here tonight? It's not the first time that my presentiments
have been fulfilled. I wish I had known it was your birthday, I'd have
brought you a present--perhaps I have got a present for you! Who knows?
Ha, ha! How long is it now before daylight?"

"Not a couple of hours," said Ptitsin, looking at his watch. "What's the
good of daylight now? One can read all night in the open air without
it," said someone.

"The good of it! Well, I want just to see a ray of the sun," said
Hippolyte. "Can one drink to the sun's health, do you think, prince?"

"Oh, I dare say one can; but you had better be calm and lie down,
Hippolyte--that's much more important.

"You are always preaching about resting; you are a regular nurse to me,
prince. As soon as the sun begins to 'resound' in the sky--what poet
said that? 'The sun resounded in the sky.' It is beautiful, though
there's no sense in it!--then we will go to bed. Lebedeff, tell me, is
the sun the source of life? What does the source, or 'spring,' of life
really mean in the Apocalypse? You have heard of the 'Star that is
called Wormwood,' prince?"

"I have heard that Lebedeff explains it as the railroads that cover
Europe like a net."

Everybody laughed, and Lebedeff got up abruptly.

"No! Allow me, that is not what we are discussing!" he cried, waving
his hand to impose silence. "Allow me! With these gentlemen... all
these gentlemen," he added, suddenly addressing the prince, "on certain
points... that is..." He thumped the table repeatedly, and the laughter
increased. Lebedeff was in his usual evening condition, and had just
ended a long and scientific argument, which had left him excited and
irritable. On such occasions he was apt to evince a supreme contempt for
his opponents.