rom giving his opponent so much as a suggestion
of his vantage-point. It came about thus. When Brodsky, already in a
state of impotent wrath at the audacity of his officer's reproof,
received from Ivan's orderly the full sum of Petrovna's debt, together
with a highly imprudent letter from Mademoiselle Irina, who did not
scruple to mention the name of her benefactor, the man's rage became
physically dangerous to himself. It did not however prevent him from
realizing the certainty of exposure of his own criminal folly which must
follow any attempt of his to disgrace Ivan on a trumped-up charge. But
an interview with the Lieutenant in which he could vent some of his
spleen in abusive threats, would be perfectly safe, and also a source of
relief. Wherefore, a half-hour after the receipt of the foolish woman's
letter, Lieutenant Gregoriev and Colonel Brodsky stood face to face in
the Colonel's tent.

It was an hour before Ivan emerged, his figure erect, his face calm,
save for a rather bitter little smile which played round the corners of
his mouth. At some yards from the closed tent, he paused to speak to
Grigory, Brodsky's orderly, who stood, as usual, on guard, but at a
prescribed distance.

"Grigory, I think the Colonel needs your assistance. He is indisposed;
and you would do well to get him a drink of _vodka_."

The man, to whom the whole progress of recent events was perfectly well
known, forgot his salute, and stood, open-mouthed, staring after this
incomprehensible young man. It was five minutes before he entered his
chief's tent with the liquor, and found there matter enough to double
his perturbation. What in the world had been done to change that
bawling, swearing, furious and malignant man, who had ordered a
subordinate to his tent with a manner spelling disgrace to the unhappy
offender, into this broken, white-faced, tremulous, sweating creature,
who actually thanked his servant for service done: a thing which, during
Grigory's four years of service, had never happened before?

If the Colonel's orderly asked himself this question and found no answer
to it, how much more did the matter puzzle the other men and officers of
the Second Grenadiers, and, gradually, as the change in Brodsky and his
regiment became known, the entire camp? To the Colonel's relieved
astonishment, he met with neither avoidance nor taunts from his
superiors; nor yet any special disdain from his inferiors. Ivan, acting
up to his own sta