osaic woman, or more jestingly, "My prosaic friend." I need hardly say
he only ventured on such jests in an extremely respectful form, and on
rare, and carefully chosen, occasions.

All of us in her intimate circle felt--Stepan Trofimovitch more acutely
than any of us--that her son had come to her almost, as it were, as a
new hope, and even as a sort of new aspiration. Her passion for her son
dated from the time of his successes in Petersburg society, and grew
more intense from the moment that he was degraded in the army. Yet she
was evidently afraid of him, and seemed like a slave in his presence.
It could be seen that she was afraid of something vague and mysterious
which she could not have put into words, and she often stole searching
glances at "Nicolas," scrutinising him reflectively... and behold--the
wild beast suddenly showed his claws.

II

Suddenly, apropos of nothing, our prince was guilty of incredible
outrages upon various persons and, what was most striking these outrages
were utterly unheard of, quite inconceivable, unlike anything commonly
done, utterly silly and mischievous, quite unprovoked and objectless.
One of the most respected of our club members, on our committee of
management, Pyotr Pavlovitch Gaganov, an elderly man of high rank in the
service, had formed the innocent habit of declaring vehemently on all
sorts of occasions: "No, you can't lead me by the nose!" Well, there
is no harm in that. But one day at the club, when he brought out this
phrase in connection with some heated discussion in the midst of a
little group of members (all persons of some consequence) Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch, who was standing on one side, alone and unnoticed,
suddenly went up to Pyotr Pavlovitch, took him unexpectedly and firmly
with two fingers by the nose, and succeeded in leading him two or three
steps across the room. He could have had no grudge against Mr. Gaganov.
It might be thought to be a mere schoolboy prank, though, of course, a
most unpardonable one. Yet, describing it afterwards, people said that
he looked almost dreamy at the very instant of the operation, "as though
he had gone out of his mind," but that was recalled and reflected upon
long afterwards. In the excitement of the moment all they recalled was
the minute after, when he certainly saw it all as it really was, and far
from being confused smiled gaily and maliciously "without the slightest
regret." There was a terrific outcry; he was surro