nd out. You
brought me here to find out and to make me say. And so you must be a
spy."

"I haven't made him drunk yet, and he's not worth the money either, with
all his secrets. They are not worth that to me. I don't know what they
are to you. On the contrary, he is scattering the money, though twelve
days ago he begged fifteen kopecks of me, and it's he treats me to
champagne, not I him. But you've given me an idea, and if there should
be occasion I will make him drunk, just to get to the bottom of it and
maybe I shall find out... all your little secrets," Liputin snapped back
spitefully.

Stepan Trofimovitch looked in bewilderment at the two disputants. Both
were giving themselves away, and what's more, were not standing on
ceremony. The thought crossed my mind that Liputin had brought this
Alexey Nilitch to us with the simple object of drawing him into a
conversation through a third person for purposes of his own--his
favourite manoeuvre.

"Alexey Nilitch knows Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch quite well," he went on,
irritably, "only he conceals it. And as to your question about Captain
Lebyadkin, he made his acquaintance before any of us did, six years ago
in Petersburg, in that obscure, if one may so express it, epoch in the
life of Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, before he had dreamed of rejoicing our
hearts by coming here. Our prince, one must conclude, surrounded himself
with rather a queer selection of acquaintances. It was at that time, it
seems, that he made acquaintance with this gentleman here."

"Take care, Liputin. I warn you, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch meant to be
here soon himself, and he knows how to defend himself."

"Why warn me? I am the first to cry out that he is a man of the most
subtle and refined intelligence, and I quite reassured Varvara Petrovna
yesterday on that score. 'It's his character,' I said to her, 'that I
can't answer for.' Lebyadkin said the same thing yesterday: 'A lot of
harm has come to me from his character,' he said. Stepan Trofimovitch,
it's all very well for you to cry out about slander and spying, and at
the very time observe that you wring it all out of me, and with such
immense curiosity too. Now, Varvara Petrovna went straight to the point
yesterday. 'You have had a personal interest in the business,' she said,
'that's why I appeal to you.' I should say so! What need to look for
motives when I've swallowed a personal insult from his excellency before
the whole society of the place.