that that I should like a full explanation."

"Madam, that is a secret that may be buried only in the grave!" answered
the captain.

"Why?" Varvara Petrovna asked, not quite so firmly.

"Madam, madam..."

He relapsed into gloomy silence, looking on the floor, laying his right
hand on his heart. Varvara Petrovna waited, not taking her eyes off him.

"Madam!" he roared suddenly. "Will you allow me to ask you one question?
Only one, but frankly, directly, like a Russian, from the heart?"

"Kindly do so."

"Have you ever suffered madam, in your life?"

"You simply mean to say that you have been or are being ill-treated by
some one."

"Madam, madam!" He jumped up again, probably unconscious of doing
so, and struck himself on the breast. "Here in this bosom so much has
accumulated, so much that God Himself will be amazed when it is revealed
at the Day of Judgment."

"H'm! A strong expression!"

"Madam, I speak perhaps irritably...."

"Don't be uneasy. I know myself when to stop you."

"May I ask you another question, madam?"

"Ask another question."

"Can one die simply from the generosity of one's feelings?"

"I don't know, as I've never asked myself such a question."

"You don't know! You've never asked yourself such a question," he said
with pathetic irony. "Well, if that's it, if that's it...

_"Be still, despairing heart!"_

And he struck himself furiously on the chest. He was by now walking
about the room again.

It is typical of such people to be utterly incapable of keeping their
desires to themselves; they have, on the contrary, an irresistible
impulse to display them in all their unseemliness as soon as they arise.
When such a gentleman gets into a circle in which he is not at home
he usually begins timidly,--but you have only to give him an inch and he
will at once rush into impertinence. The captain was already excited.
He walked about waving his arms and not listening to questions, talked
about himself very, very quickly, so that sometimes his tongue would not
obey him, and without finishing one phrase he passed to another. It is
true he was probably not quite sober. Moreover, Lizaveta Nikolaevna
was sitting there too, and though he did not once glance at her, her
presence seemed to over-excite him terribly; that, however, is only my
supposition. There must have been some reason which led Varvara Petrovna
to resolve to listen to such a man in spite of her repugnance. Praskovya
Ivanovna w