What are you up to? I can't make you out! The money, the money, sir! The four hundred roubles that you lost that day. You came and told me about it one morning, and then went off to Petersburg. There, NOW do you understand?""Oh--h--h! You mean the four hundred roubles!" said Lebedeff, dragging the words out, just as though it had only just dawned upon him what the prince was talking about. "Thanks very much, prince, for your kind interest--you do me too much honour. Ifound the money, long ago!"
"You found it? Thank God for that!"
"Your exclamation proves the generous sympathy of your nature, prince; for four hundred roubles--to a struggling family man like myself--is no small matter!""I didn't mean that; at least, of course, I'm glad for your sake, too," added the prince, correcting himself, " but--how did you find it?""Very simply indeed! I found it under the chair upon which my coat had hung; so that it is clear the purse simply fell out of the pocket and on to the floor!""Under the chair? Impossible! Why, you told me yourself that you had searched every corner of the room? How could you not have looked in the most likely place of all?""Of course I looked there,--of course I did! Very much so! Ilooked and scrambled about, and felt for it, and wouldn't believe it was not there, and looked again and again. It is always so in such cases. One longs and expects to find a lost article; one sees it is not there, and the place is as hare as one's palm; and yet one returns and looks again and again, fifteen or twenty times, likely enough!""Oh, quite so, of course. But how was it in your case?--I don't quite understand," said the bewildered prince. "You say it wasn't there at first, and that you searched the place thoroughly, and yet it turned up on that very spot!""Yes, sir--on that very spot." The prince gazed strangely at Lebedeff. "And the general?" he asked, abruptly.
"The--the general? How do you mean, the general?" said Lebedeff, dubiously, as though he had not taken in the drift of the prince's remark.
"Oh, good heavens! I mean, what did the general say when the purse turned up under the chair? You and he had searched for it together there, hadn't you?""Quite so--together! But the second time I thought better to say nothing about finding it. I found it alone.""But--why in the world--and the money? Was it all there?""I opened the purse and counted it myself; right to a single rouble.""I think you might have come and told me," said the prince, thoughtfully.
"Oh--I didn't like to disturb you, prince, in the midst of your private and doubtless most interesting personal reflections.
Besides, I wanted to appear, myself, to have found nothing. Itook the purse, and opened it, and counted the money, and shut it and put it down again under the chair.""What in the world for?"
"Oh, just out of curiosity," said Lebedeff, rubbing his hands and sniggering.
"What, it's still there then, is it? Ever since the day before yesterday?""Oh no! You see, I was half in hopes the general might find it.
Because if I found it, why should not he too observe an object lying before his very eyes? I moved the chair several times so as to expose the purse to view, but the general never saw it. He is very absent just now, evidently. He talks and laughs and tells stories, and suddenly flies into a rage with me, goodness knows why.""Well, but--have you taken the purse away now?""No, it disappeared from under the chair in the night.""Where is it now, then?"
"Here," laughed Lebedeff, at last, rising to his full height and looking pleasantly at the prince, "here, in the lining of my coat. Look, you can feel it for yourself, if you like!"Sure enough there was something sticking out of the front of the coat--something large. It certainly felt as though it might well be the purse fallen through a hole in the pocket into the lining.
"I took it out and had a look at it; it's all right. I've let it slip back into the lining now, as you see, and so I have been walking about ever since yesterday morning; it knocks against my legs when I walk along.""H'm! and you take no notice of it?"
"Quite so, I take no notice of it. Ha, ha! and think of this, prince, my pockets are always strong and whole, and yet, here in one night, is a huge hole. I know the phenomenon is unworthy of your notice; but such is the case. I examined the hole, and Ideclare it actually looks as though it had been made with a pen-knife, a most improbable contingency."
"And--and--the general?"
"Ah, very angry all day, sir; all yesterday and all today. He shows decided bacchanalian predilections at one time, and at another is tearful and sensitive, but at any moment he is liable to paroxysms of such rage that I assure you, prince, I am quite alarmed. I am not a military man, you know. Yesterday we were sitting together in the tavern, and the lining of my coat was--quite accidentally, of course--sticking out right in front. The general squinted at it, and flew into a rage. He never looks me quite in the face now, unless he is very drunk or maudlin; but yesterday he looked at me in such a way that a shiver went all down my back. I intend to find the purse tomorrow; but till then I am going to have another night of it with him.""What's the good of tormenting him like this?" cried the prince.
"I don't torment him, prince, I don't indeed!" cried Lebedeff, hotly. "I love him, my dear sir, I esteem him; and believe it or not, I love him all the better for this business, yes--and value him more."Lebedeff said this so seriously that the prince quite lost his temper with him.
"Nonsense! love him and torment him so! Why, by the very fact that he put the purse prominently before you, first under the chair and then in your lining, he shows that he does not wish to deceive you, but is anxious to beg your forgiveness in this artless way. Do you hear? He is asking your pardon. He confides in the delicacy of your feelings, and in your friendship for him.