ntangible gaze.

Never did Felitzata say for certain who the boy's father had been, but
at least it was known to me that in vague terms she had designated two
men as such--the one a young "survey student," and the other a merchant
by name Viporotkov, a man notorious to the whole town as a most
turbulent rake and bully. But once when she and Antipa and I were
seated gossiping at the entrance-gates, and I inquired of her whether
Nilushka's father were still surviving, she replied in a careless way:

"He is so, damn him!"

"Then who is he?"

Felitzata, as usual, licked her faded, but still comely, lips with the
tip of her tongue before she replied:

"A monk."

"Ah!" Vologonov exclaimed with unexpected animation. "That, then,
explains things. At all events, we have in it an intelligible THEORY of
things."

Whereafter, he expounded to us at length, and with no sparing of
details, the reason why a monk should have been Nilushka's father
rather than either the merchant or the young "survey student." And as
Vologonov proceeded he grew unwontedly enthusiastic, and went so far as
to clench his fists until presently he heaved a sigh, as though
mentally hurt, and said frowningly and reproachfully to the woman:

"Why did you never tell us this before? It was exceedingly negligent of
you."

Felitzata looked at the old man with sarcasm and sauciness gleaming in
her brown eyes. Suddenly, however, she contracted her brows,
counterfeited a sigh, and whined:

"Ah, I was good-looking then, and desired of all. In those days I had
both a good heart and a happy nature."

"But the monk may prove to have been an important factor in the
question," was Antipa's thoughtful remark.

"Yes, and many another man than he has run after me for his pleasure,"
continued Felitzata in a tone of reminiscence. This led Vologonov to
cough, rise to his feet, lay his hand upon the woman's claret-coloured
sleeve of satin, and say sternly:

"Do you come into my room, for I have business to transact with you."

As she complied she smiled and winked at me. And so the pair
departed--he shuffling carefully with his bandy legs, and she watching
her steps as though at any moment she might collapse on to her left
side.

Thenceforth, Felitzata visited Vologonov almost daily; and once during
the time of two hours or so that the pair were occupied in drinking tea
I heard, through the partition-wall, the old man say in vigorous,
level, didactical tones: