hen he was comfortably abed and puffing away
at a short meerschaum, he turned to his comrade, stared at him for an
instant, and then called him by name, twice.

At the second summons Ivan started, shook himself, and turned towards
the other bed: "What did you say? When did you come in, Vladimir? How
long since you left the mess?"

"Twenty minutes, about."

"And--?" Ivan paused, for an instant, while a frown appeared between his
brows, "they are--discussing the usual theme?"

"All evening.--It seems there are developments.--But where were you for
dinner?"

The frown deepened. "Potapoff of the engineers had asked me over to
their mess--very civilly.--You know I've seen a good deal of him lately,
because of that survey I've been working out.--I went, suspecting
nothing. But I soon discovered it was only to see how much they could
pump me with regard to--to this d---- situation of ours. I tell you,
it's all through the camp."

De Windt sat up, with an ejaculation of deep disgust. "Well--you
didn't--they didn't get anything out of you, did they?"

"Holy Virgin!--D'ye think I'm _proud_ of the fix? D'ye think the
regiment doesn't mean as much to me as to you?--I left them the minute
tea came in; and I lay here thinking about it when I dozed off."

"Vladimir Vassilyitch, the thing can't go on. It _can't_! We'll be
degraded for good. Two years hence, the report that a fellow's been in
this regiment will come near ruining him.--And yet--what Brodsky's
about, I simply can't fathom. He's been on parade exactly twice since we
pitched tent; and both times, if the men hadn't known his general habits
at manoeuvre, they'd have been stumped to obey. Zedarovsky said he
could barely mumble.--Vladimir, the man's an animal.--But, I say, what
are the developments you spoke of?"

De Windt was silent for an instant, studying the open expression of the
clear-eyed, clean-cut young face before him. During the past winter the
older man had conceived a friendship for Ivan such as he would hardly
have believed himself capable of. Above all things, de Windt was proud
of Ivan's scrupulous morality, and the almost incredible chivalry with
which he regarded all women. Few men attempted to fathom the extent of
his innocence. But it was a fact that conversations of a certain type
were instinctively stopped when this young fellow entered a room--though
it were the lounging-room of the notorious Yacht club itself. It was for
this reason that de Wi