g of
disdainful pity for him whenever I thought of them--a feeling which
I did not in the least desire to entertain. At the very moment of the
insult (for I admit that I did insult him, though I did not mean to),
this man could not lose his temper. His lips had trembled, but I swear
it was not with rage. He had taken me by the arm, and said, 'Go out,'
without the least anger. There was dignity, a great deal of dignity,
about him, and it was so inconsistent with the look of him that, I
assure you, it was quite comical. But there was no anger. Perhaps he
merely began to despise me at that moment.

"Since that time he has always taken off his hat to me on the stairs,
whenever I met him, which is a thing he never did before; but he always
gets away from me as quickly as he can, as though he felt confused. If
he did despise me, he despised me 'meekly,' after his own fashion.

"I dare say he only took his hat off out of fear, as it were, to the son
of his creditor; for he always owed my mother money. I thought of having
an explanation with him, but I knew that if I did, he would begin to
apologize in a minute or two, so I decided to let him alone.

"Just about that time, that is, the middle of March, I suddenly felt
very much better; this continued for a couple of weeks. I used to go
out at dusk. I like the dusk, especially in March, when the night frost
begins to harden the day's puddles, and the gas is burning.

"Well, one night in the Shestilavochnaya, a man passed me with a paper
parcel under his arm. I did not take stock of him very carefully, but he
seemed to be dressed in some shabby summer dust-coat, much too light for
the season. When he was opposite the lamp-post, some ten yards away, I
observed something fall out of his pocket. I hurried forward to pick it
up, just in time, for an old wretch in a long kaftan rushed up too.
He did not dispute the matter, but glanced at what was in my hand and
disappeared.

"It was a large old-fashioned pocket-book, stuffed full; but I guessed,
at a glance, that it had anything in the world inside it, except money.

"The owner was now some forty yards ahead of me, and was very soon lost
in the crowd. I ran after him, and began calling out; but as I knew
nothing to say excepting 'hey!' he did not turn round. Suddenly he
turned into the gate of a house to the left; and when I darted in after
him, the gateway was so dark that I could see nothing whatever. It was
one of those large