addressing you intend to reproach you in any way. It is not my intention or my habit to force myself upon any one whatever; it is enough for me to feel that I am not to blame in the matter. I am writing to you now from a feeling of duty. I have made an offer to Marya Sergievna Perekatov, and have been accepted by her, and also by her parents. I inform you of this fact—directly and immediately—to avoid any kind of misapprehension or suspicion. I frankly confess, sir, that I am unable to feel great concern about the good opinion of a man who himself shows so little concern for the opinions and feelings of other people, and I am writing to you solely because I do not care in this matter even to appear to have acted or to be acting underhandedly. I make bold to say, you know me, and will not ascribe my present action to any other lower motive. Addressing you for the last time, I cannot, for the sake of our old friendship, refrain from wishing you all good things possible on earth.—I remain, sincerely, your obedient servant, Fyodor Kister.’

Fyodor Fedoritch despatched this note to the address, changed his uniform, and ordered his carriage to be got ready. Light-hearted and happy, he walked up and down his little room humming, even gave two little skips in the air, twisted a book of songs into a roll, and was tying it up with blue ribbon…. The door opened, and Lutchkov, in a coat without epaulettes, with a cap on his head, came into the room. Kister, astounded, stood still in the middle of the room, without finishing the bow he was tying.

‘So you’re marrying the Perekatov girl?’ queried Avdey in a calm voice.

Kister fired up.

‘Sir,’ he began; ‘decent people take off their caps and say good-morning when they come into another man’s room.’

‘Beg pardon,’ the bully jerked out; and he took off his cap. ‘Good-morning.’

‘Good-morning, Mr. Lutchkov. You ask me if I am about to marry Miss Perekatov? Haven’t you read my letter, then?’

‘I have read your letter. You’re going to get married. I congratulate you.’

‘I accept your congratulation, and thank you for it. But I must be starting.’

‘I should like to have a few words of explanation with you, Fyodor Fedoritch.’

‘By all means, with pleasure,’ responded the good-natured fellow. ‘I must own I was expecting such an explanation. Your behaviour to me has been so strange, and I think, on my side, I have not deserved… at least, I had no reason to expect… But won’t you sit down? Wouldn’t you like a pipe?’

Lutchkov sat down. There was a certain weariness perceptible in his movements. He stroked his moustaches and lifted his eyebrows.

‘I say, Fyodor Fedoritch,’ he began at last; ‘why did you keep it up with me so long?…’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Why did you pose as such… a disinterested being, when you were just such another as all the rest of us sinners all the while?’

‘I don’t understand you…. Can I have wounded you in some way?…’

‘You don’t understand me… all right. I’ll try and speak more plainly. Just tell me, for instance, openly, Have you had a liking for the Perekatov girl all along, or is it a case of sudden passion?’

‘I should prefer, Avdey Ivanitch, not to discuss with you my relations with Marya Sergievna,’ Kister responded coldly.

‘Oh, indeed! As you please. Only you’ll kindly allow me to believe that you’ve been humbugging me.’

Avdey spoke very deliberately and emphatically.

‘You can’t believe that, Avdey Ivanitch; you know me.’

‘I know you?… who knows you? The heart of another is a dark forest, and the best side of goods is always turned uppermost. I know you read German poetry with great feeling and even with tears in your eyes; I know that you’ve hung various maps on your walls; I know you keep your person clean; that I know,… but beyond that, I know nothing…’

Kister began to lose his temper.

‘Allow me to inquire,’ he asked at last, ‘what is the object of your visit? You have sent no message to me for three weeks, and now you come to me, apparently with the intention of jeering at me. I am not a boy, sir, and I do not allow any one…’

‘Mercy on us,’ Lutchkov interrupted him; ‘mercy on us, Fyodor Fedoritch, who would venture to jeer at you? It’s quite the other way; I’ve come to you with a most humble request, that is, that you’d do me the favour to explain your behaviour to me. Allow me to ask you, wasn’t it you who forced me to make the acquaintance of the Perekatov family? Didn’t you assure your humble servant that it would make his soul blossom into flower? And lastly, didn’t you throw me with the virtuous Marya Sergievna? Why am I not to presume that it’s to you I’m indebted for that final agreeable scene, of which you have doubtless been informed in befitting fashion? An engaged girl, of course, tells her betrothed of everything, especially of her innocent indiscretions. How can I help supposing that it’s thanks to you I’ve been made such a terrific fool of? You took such a mighty interest in my «blossoming out,» you know!’

Kister walked up and down the room.

‘Look here, Lutchkov,’ he said at last; ‘if you really—joking apart—are convinced of what you say, which I confess I don’t believe, then let me tell you, it’s shameful and wicked of you to put such an insulting construction on my conduct and intentions. I don’t want to justify myself… I appeal to your own conscience, to your memory.’

‘Yes; I remember you were continually whispering with Marya Sergievna. Besides that, let me ask you another question: Weren’t you at the Perekatovs’ after a certain conversation with me, after that evening when I like a fool chattered to you, thinking you my greatest friend, of the meeting she’d arranged?’

‘What! you suspect me…’

‘I suspect other people of nothing,’ Avdey cut him short with cutting iciness, ‘of which I would not suspect myself; but I have the weakness to suppose that other men are no better than I am.’

‘You are mistaken,’ Kister retorted emphatically; ‘other men are better than you.’

‘I congratulate them upon it,’ Lutchkov dropped carelessly; ‘but…’

‘But remember,’ broke in Kister, now in his turn thoroughly infuriated, ‘in what terms you spoke of… of that meeting… of… But these explanations are leading to nothing, I see…. Think what you choose of me, and act as you think best.’

‘Come, that’s better,’ observed Avdey. ‘At last you’re beginning to speak plainly.’

‘As you think best,’ repeated Kister.

‘I understand your position, Fyodor Fedoritch,’ Avdey went on with an affectation of sympathy; ‘it’s disagreeable, certainly. A man has been acting, acting a part, and no one has recognised him as a humbug; and all of a sudden…’

‘If I could believe,’ Kister interrupted, setting his teeth, ‘that it was wounded love that makes you talk like this, I should feel sorry for you; I could excuse you…. But in your abuse, in your false charges, I hear nothing but the shriek of mortified pride… and I feel no sympathy for you…. You have deserved what you’ve got.’

‘Ugh, mercy on us, how the fellow talks!’ Avdey murmured. ‘Pride,’ he went on; ‘may be; yes, yes, my pride, as you say, has been mortified intensely and insufferably. But who isn’t proud? Aren’t you? Yes, I’m proud, and for instance, I permit no one to feel sorry for me….’

‘You don’t permit it!’ Kister retorted haughtily. ‘What an expression, sir! Don’t forget, the tie between us you yourself have broken. I must beg you to behave with me as with a complete outsider.’

‘Broken! Broken the tie between us!’ repeated Avdey. ‘Understand me; I have sent you no message, and have not been to see you because I was sorry for you; you must allow me to be sorry for you, since you ‘re sorry for me!… I didn’t want to put you in a false position, to make your conscience prick…. You talk of a tie between us… as though you could remain my friend as before your marriage! Rubbish! Why, you were only friendly with me before to gloat over your fancied superiority…’

Avdey’s duplicity overwhelmed, confounded Kister.

‘Let us end this unpleasant conversation!’ he cried at last. ‘I must own I don’t see why you’ve been pleased to come to me.’

‘You don’t see what I’ve come to you for?’ Avdey asked inquiringly.

‘I certainly don’t see why.’

‘N—o?’

‘No, I tell you…’

‘Astonishing!… This is astonishing! Who’d have thought it of a fellow of your intelligence!’

‘Come, speak plainly…’

‘I have come, Mr. Kister,’ said Avdey, slowly rising to his feet, ‘I have come to challenge you to a duel. Do you understand now? I want to fight you. Ah! you thought you could get rid of me like that! Why, didn’t you know the sort of man you have to do with? As if I’d allow…’

‘Very good,’ Kister cut in coldly and abruptly. ‘I accept your challenge. Kindly send me your second.’

‘Yes, yes,’ pursued Avdey, who, like a cat, could not bear to let his victim go so soon: ‘it’ll give me great pleasure I’ll own to put a bullet into your fair and idealistic countenance to-morrow.’

‘You are abusive after a challenge, it seems,’ Kister rejoined contemptuously. ‘Be so good as to go. I’m ashamed of you.’

‘Oh, to be sure, délicatesse!… Ah, Marya Sergievna, I don’t know French!’ growled Avdey, as he put on his cap. ‘Till we meet again, Fyodor Fedoritch!’

He bowed and walked out.

Kister paced several times up and down