to do with me?"
cried the visitor. "But... what does matter..." he whispered again,
turning to the door, which was by now closed, and nodding his head in
that direction.

"She never listens," Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch observed coldly.

"What if she did overhear?" cried Pyotr Stepanovitch, raising his voice
cheerfully, and settling down in an arm-chair. "I've nothing against
that, only I've come here now to speak to you alone. Well, at last I've
succeeded in getting at you. First of all, how are you? I see you're
getting on splendidly. To-morrow you'll show yourself again--eh?"

"Perhaps."

"Set their minds at rest. Set mine at rest at last." He gesticulated
violently with a jocose and amiable air. "If only you knew what nonsense
I've had to talk to them. You know, though." He laughed.

"I don't know everything. I only heard from my mother that you've
been... very active."

"Oh, well, I've said nothing definite," Pyotr Stepanovitch flared up
at once, as though defending himself from an awful attack. "I simply
trotted out Shatov's wife; you know, that is, the rumours of your
liaison in Paris, which accounted, of course, for what happened on
Sunday. You're not angry?"

"I'm sure you've done your best."

"Oh, that's just what I was afraid of. Though what does that mean, 'done
your best'? That's a reproach, isn't it? You always go straight for
things, though.... What I was most afraid of, as I came here, was that
you wouldn't go straight for the point."

"I don't want to go straight for anything," said Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch
with some irritation. But he laughed at once.

"I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that, don't make a mistake," cried
Pyotr Stepanovitch, waving his hands, rattling his words out like peas,
and at once relieved at his companion's irritability. "I'm not going to
worry you with _our_ business, especially in your present position. I've
only come about Sunday's affair, and only to arrange the most necessary
steps, because, you see, it's impossible. I've come with the frankest
explanations which I stand in more need of than you--so much for your
vanity, but at the same time it's true. I've come to be open with you
from this time forward."

"Then you have not been open with me before?"

"You know that yourself. I've been cunning with you many times... you
smile; I'm very glad of that smile as a prelude to our explanation. I
provoked that smile on purpose by using the word 'cunning,' so that you