e with
some mysterious object in view (as I found out later). There was no
doubt that his coming now (in a hired carriage) was at the instigation
and with the assistance of some one else; it would never have dawned on
him, nor could he by himself have succeeded in dressing, getting ready
and making up his mind in three-quarters of an hour, even if the scene
in the porch of the cathedral had reached his ears at once. He was not
drunk, but was in the dull, heavy, dazed condition of a man suddenly
awakened after many days of drinking. It seemed as though he would be
drunk again if one were to put one's hands on his shoulders and rock
him to and fro once or twice. He was hurrying into the drawing-room but
stumbled over a rug near the doorway. Marya Timofyevna was helpless with
laughter. He looked savagely at her and suddenly took a few rapid steps
towards Varvara Petrovna.

"I have come, madam..." he blared out like a trumpet-blast.

"Be so good, sir, as to take a seat there, on that chair," said Varvara
Petrovna, drawing herself up. "I shall hear you as well from there, and
it will be more convenient for me to look at you from here."

The captain stopped short, looking blankly before him. He turned,
however, and sat down on the seat indicated close to the door. An
extreme lack of self-confidence and at the same time insolence, and a
sort of incessant irritability, were apparent in the expression of his
face. He was horribly scared, that was evident, but his self-conceit
was wounded, and it might be surmised that his mortified vanity might on
occasion lead him to any effrontery, in spite of his cowardice. He was
evidently uneasy at every movement of his clumsy person. We all know
that when such gentlemen are brought by some marvellous chance into
society, they find their worst ordeal in their own hands, and the
impossibility of disposing them becomingly, of which they are conscious
at every moment. The captain sat rigid in his chair, with his hat and
gloves in his hands and his eyes fixed with a senseless stare on the
stern face of Varvara Petrovna. He would have liked, perhaps, to have
looked about more freely, but he could not bring himself to do so yet.
Marya Timofyevna, apparently thinking his appearance very funny, laughed
again, but he did not stir. Varvara Petrovna ruthlessly kept him in this
position for a long time, a whole minute, staring at him without mercy.

"In the first place allow me to learn your name fr