"You asked for me twice? Perhaps you're still worried about yesterday's . . ."

"About that boy yesterday, you mean, Prince? Oh, no, sir; yesterday my thoughts were in disarray . . . but today I no longer intend to countercarrate your intentions in any way."

"Counter . . . what did you say?"

"I said countercarrate; it's a French word,²⁷ like many other words that have entered the Russian language; but I don't especially insist on it."

"What is it with you today, Lebedev, you're so grave and decorous, and enunciate so distinctly," the prince smiled.

"Nikolai Ardalionovich!" Lebedev addressed Kolya in an all but affectionate voice, "having to inform the prince of a matter essentially of concern ..."

"Ah, yes, naturally, naturally, it's none of my business! Goodbye, Prince!" Kolya left at once.

"I like the child for his quick wits," Lebedev said, looking at his back, "a nimble boy, though an importunate one. It is a great misfortune that I have experienced, my much-esteemed Prince, yesterday evening or today at dawn ... I hesitate to specify the exact time."

"What is it?"

"The disappearance of four hundred roubles from my side pocket, my much-esteemed Prince; I've been marked!" Lebedev added with a sour smile.

"You lost four hundred roubles? That's a pity."

"And especially if one is a poor man who lives nobly by his own labor."

"Of course, of course. How did it happen?"

"On account of wine, sir. I am turning to you as to providence, my much-esteemed Prince. I received the sum of four hundred roubles in silver from a debtor yesterday at five o'clock in the afternoon and came here by train. I had the wallet in my pocket. Having changed from my uniform²⁸ into a frock coat, I transferred the money to the frock coat, with a view to keeping it with me, counting on handing it over that same evening on a certain request ... as I was expecting an agent."

"By the way, Lukyan Timofeich, is it true that you put a notice in the newspaper that you lend money for gold and silver objects?"

"Through an agent; my name wasn't mentioned, nor was my address. Having insignificant capital and in view of my growing family, you must agree that an honest percentage . . ."

"Well, yes, yes; I merely wanted to know; excuse me for interrupting."

"The agent did not come. Meanwhile the unfortunate young man was brought; I was already under the influence, after dinner; those guests came, we had . . . tea, and ... I waxed merry, to my undoing. And when, at a late hour, this Keller came and announced your celebration and your orders about the champagne, I, my dear and much-esteemed Prince, having a heart (which you have probably noticed by now, for I deserve it), having a heart which is, I do not say sensitive, but grateful, and I am proud of it—I, for the greater solemnity of the impending meeting and in expectation of personally offering my congratulations, decided to go and exchange my old rags for my uniform, which I had taken off on my return, and so I did, as you probably noticed, Prince, seeing me in my uniform all evening. In changing my clothes, I forgot the wallet in my frock coat . . . Verily, when God wishes to punish a man, he first deprives him of reason.²⁹ And it was only today, at half-past seven, on awakening, that I jumped up like a half-wit and snatched my frock coat first thing—only an empty pocket! Not a trace of the wallet."

"Ah, that's unpleasant!"

"Precisely unpleasant; and you with your genuine tact have just found the suitable expression," Lebedev added, not without insidiousness.

"How is it, though . . ." the prince pondered, beginning to worry, "no, this is serious."

"Precisely serious—you've sought out yet another word, Prince, to signify ..."

"Oh, enough, Lukyan Timofeich, what was there to seek out? The words aren't important. . . Do you suppose that, in a drunken state, you might have dropped it out of your pocket?"

"I might have. Everything is possible in a drunken state, as you have so sincerely expressed it, my much-esteemed Prince! But I beg you to consider, sir: if I dropped the wallet out of my pocket while changing my frock coat, the dropped object should be lying there on the floor. Where is that object, sir?"

"You didn't stuff it into a desk drawer somewhere?"

"I've looked all over, rummaged everywhere, the more so as I never hid it anywhere or opened any drawer, which I remember distinctly."

"Did you look in the little cupboard?"

"First thing, sir, and even several times today . . . And how could I have put it into the little cupboard, my truly-esteemed Prince?"

"I confess, Lebedev, this worries me. So someone found it on the floor?"

"Or stole it from the pocket! Two alternatives, sir."

"This worries me very much, because who precisely . . . That's the question!"

"Without any doubt, that is the main question; you find words and thoughts and define the situation with astonishing precision, illustrious Prince."

"Ah, Lukyan Timofeich, stop your mockery, there's . . ."

"Mockery!" cried Lebedev, clasping his hands.

"Well, well, all right, I'm not angry, there's something else here . . . I'm afraid for people. Whom do you suspect?"

"A most difficult and . . . most complicated question! I cannot suspect my maid: she was sitting in her kitchen. Nor my own children ..."

"Hardly!"

"That means it was someone among the guests, sir."

"But is that possible?"

"It is totally and in the highest degree impossible, but it must certainly be so. I agree, however, to allow, and am even convinced, that if there was a theft, it was carried out not in the evening,

when we were all together, but at night or even towards morning, by someone who stayed overnight."

"Ah, my God!"

"Burdovsky and Nikolai Ardalionovich I naturally exclude; they never entered my quarters, sir."

"Hardly, and even if they had! Who spent the night with you?"

"Counting me, there were four who spent the night, in two adjacent rooms: me, the general, Keller, and Mr. Ferdyshchenko. Which means it's one of us four, sir!"

"Three, that is; but who?"

"I included myself for the sake of fairness and order; but you must agree, Prince, that I couldn't rob myself, though such things have happened in the world . . ."

"Ah, Lebedev, this is so tedious!" the prince cried impatiently. "To business, why drag it out! . . ."

"So three remain, sir, and first of all Mr. Keller, an unstable man, a drunk man, and on certain occasions a liberal, that is, with regard to the pocket, sir; in everything else his inclinations are, so to speak, more old chivalric than liberal. He slept here at first, in the sick boy's room, and it was only at night that he moved over to us, on the pretext that it was hard to sleep on the bare floor."

"Do you suspect him?"

"I did, sir. When I jumped up like a half-wit past seven in the morning and slapped myself on the forehead, I at once woke up the general, who was sleeping the sleep of the innocent. After considering the strange disappearance of Ferdyshchenko, which in itself aroused our suspicion, we both decided at once to search Keller, who was lying there like . . . like . . . almost like a doornail, sir. We searched him thoroughly: not a centime in his pockets, and not even a single pocket without holes in it. A blue, checked cotton handkerchief, sir, in indecent condition. Then a love note from some serving girl, with demands for money and threats, and the scraps of the feuilleton already familiar to you, sir. The general decided he was innocent. To obtain full information, we woke him up; we had a hard time jostling him; he was barely able to understand what it was all about; a gaping mouth, a drunken look, an absurd and innocent, even stupid, expression—it wasn't he, sir!"