chair? You and he had searched for it together
there, hadn't you?"

"Quite so--together! But the second time I thought better to say nothing
about finding it. I found it alone."

"But--why in the world--and the money? Was it all there?"

"I opened the purse and counted it myself; right to a single rouble."

"I think you might have come and told me," said the prince,
thoughtfully.

"Oh--I didn't like to disturb you, prince, in the midst of your private
and doubtless most interesting personal reflections. Besides, I wanted
to appear, myself, to have found nothing. I took the purse, and opened
it, and counted the money, and shut it and put it down again under the
chair."

"What in the world for?"

"Oh, just out of curiosity," said Lebedeff, rubbing his hands and
sniggering.

"What, it's still there then, is it? Ever since the day before
yesterday?"

"Oh no! You see, I was half in hopes the general might find it. Because
if I found it, why should not he too observe an object lying before his
very eyes? I moved the chair several times so as to expose the purse
to view, but the general never saw it. He is very absent just now,
evidently. He talks and laughs and tells stories, and suddenly flies
into a rage with me, goodness knows why."

"Well, but--have you taken the purse away now?"

"No, it disappeared from under the chair in the night."

"Where is it now, then?"

"Here," laughed Lebedeff, at last, rising to his full height and looking
pleasantly at the prince, "here, in the lining of my coat. Look, you can
feel it for yourself, if you like!"

Sure enough there was something sticking out of the front of the
coat--something large. It certainly felt as though it might well be the
purse fallen through a hole in the pocket into the lining.

"I took it out and had a look at it; it's all right. I've let it slip
back into the lining now, as you see, and so I have been walking about
ever since yesterday morning; it knocks against my legs when I walk
along."

"H'm! and you take no notice of it?"

"Quite so, I take no notice of it. Ha, ha! and think of this, prince,
my pockets are always strong and whole, and yet, here in one night, is a
huge hole. I know the phenomenon is unworthy of your notice; but such is
the case. I examined the hole, and I declare it actually looks as though
it had been made with a pen-knife, a most improbable contingency."

"And--and--the general?"

"Ah, very angry all day, sir; all y