settled himself in a chair. The captain did not
venture to sit down on the sofa, but at once moved up another chair for
himself, and bent forward to listen, in a tremor of expectation.

"What have you got there under the table-cloth?" asked Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch, suddenly noticing it.

"That?" said Lebyadkin, turning towards it also. "That's from your
generosity, by way of house-warming, so to say; considering also
the length of the walk, and your natural fatigue," he sniggered
ingratiatingly. Then he got up on tiptoe, and respectfully and carefully
lifted the table-cloth from the table in the corner. Under it was seen a
slight meal: ham, veal, sardines, cheese, a little green decanter, and a
long bottle of Bordeaux. Everything had been laid neatly, expertly, and
almost daintily.

"Was that your effort?"

"Yes, sir. Ever since yesterday I've done my best, and all to do you
honour.... Marya Timofyevna doesn't trouble herself, as you know, on
that score. And what's more its all from your liberality, your own
providing, as you're the master of the house and not I, and I'm only, so
to say, your agent. All the same, all the same, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch,
all the same, in spirit, I'm independent! Don't take away from me this
last possession!" he finished up pathetically.

"H'm! You might sit down again."

"Gra-a-teful, grateful, and independent." He sat down. "Ah, Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch, so much has been fermenting in this heart that I have
not known how to wait for your coming. Now you will decide my fate,
and... that unhappy creature's, and then... shall I pour out all I feel
to you as I used to in old days, four years ago? You deigned to listen
to me then, you read my verses.... They might call me your Falstaff from
Shakespeare in those days, but you meant so much in my life! I have
great terrors now, and its only to you I look for counsel and light.
Pyotr Stepanovitch is treating me abominably!"

Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch listened with interest, and looked at him
attentively. It was evident that though Captain Lebyadkin had left off
drinking he was far from being in a harmonious state of mind.
Drunkards of many years' standing, like Lebyadkin, often show traces of
incoherence, of mental cloudiness, of something, as it were, damaged,
and crazy, though they may deceive, cheat, and swindle, almost as well
as anybody if occasion arises.

"I see that you haven't changed a bit in these four years and more,
captain,"