e terror, but she didn't even dare to think of getting
up and going away until her daughter should get up. In the meantime the
captain wanted to slip away. That I noticed. There was no doubt that he
had been in a great panic from the instant that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch
had made his appearance; but Pyotr Stepanovitch took him by the arm and
would not let him go.

"It is necessary, quite necessary," he pattered on to Varvara Petrovna,
still trying to persuade her. He stood facing her, as she was sitting
down again in her easy chair, and, I remember, was listening to him
eagerly; he had succeeded in securing her attention.

"It is necessary. You can see for yourself, Varvara Petrovna, that there
is a misunderstanding here, and much that is strange on the surface,
and yet the thing's as clear as daylight, and as simple as my finger. I
quite understand that no one has authorised me to tell the story, and
I dare say I look ridiculous putting myself forward. But in the first
place, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch attaches no sort of significance to
the matter himself, and, besides, there are incidents of which it is
difficult for a man to make up his mind to give an explanation himself.
And so it's absolutely necessary that it should be undertaken by a third
person, for whom it's easier to put some delicate points into words.
Believe me, Varvara Petrovna, that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch is not at
all to blame for not immediately answering your question just now with
a full explanation, it's all a trivial affair. I've known him since his
Petersburg days. Besides, the whole story only does honour to Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch, if one must make use of that vague word 'honour.'"

"You mean to say that you were a witness of some incident which gave
rise... to this misunderstanding?" asked Varvara Petrovna.

"I witnessed it, and took part in it," Pyotr Stepanovitch hastened to
declare.

"If you'll give me your word that this will not wound Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch's delicacy in regard to his feeling for me, from whom
he ne-e-ver conceals anything... and if you are convinced also that your
doing this will be agreeable to him..."

"Certainly it will be agreeable, and for that reason I consider it a
particularly agreeable duty. I am convinced that he would beg me to do
it himself."

The intrusive desire of this gentleman, who seemed to have dropped on
us from heaven to tell stories about other people's affairs, was rather
strange and inconsi