leep, as you see. Will you show me the way, for I do not
know the street? I have the address, though; it is close to the Grand
Theatre."

"Nastasia Philipovna? She does not live there, and to tell you the truth
my father has never been to her house! It is strange that you should
have depended on him! She lives near Wladimir Street, at the Five
Corners, and it is quite close by. Will you go directly? It is just
half-past nine. I will show you the way with pleasure."

Colia and the prince went off together. Alas! the latter had no money to
pay for a cab, so they were obliged to walk.

"I should have liked to have taken you to see Hippolyte," said Colia.
"He is the eldest son of the lady you met just now, and was in the next
room. He is ill, and has been in bed all day. But he is rather strange,
and extremely sensitive, and I thought he might be upset considering
the circumstances in which you came... Somehow it touches me less, as
it concerns my father, while it is HIS mother. That, of course, makes
a great difference. What is a terrible disgrace to a woman, does not
disgrace a man, at least not in the same way. Perhaps public opinion
is wrong in condemning one sex, and excusing the other. Hippolyte is
an extremely clever boy, but so prejudiced. He is really a slave to his
opinions."

"Do you say he is consumptive?"

"Yes. It really would be happier for him to die young. If I were in his
place I should certainly long for death. He is unhappy about his brother
and sisters, the children you saw. If it were possible, if we only had a
little money, we should leave our respective families, and live together
in a little apartment of our own. It is our dream. But, do you know,
when I was talking over your affair with him, he was angry, and said
that anyone who did not call out a man who had given him a blow was a
coward. He is very irritable to-day, and I left off arguing the matter
with him. So Nastasia Philipovna has invited you to go and see her?"

"To tell the truth, she has not."

"Then how do you come to be going there?" cried Colia, so much
astonished that he stopped short in the middle of the pavement. "And...
and are you going to her At Home in that costume?"

"I don't know, really, whether I shall be allowed in at all. If she will
receive me, so much the better. If not, the matter is ended. As to my
clothes--what can I do?"

"Are you going there for some particular reason, or only as a way of
getting into he