n agent. My own name doesn't appear. I have a large
family, you see, and at a small percentage--"

"Quite so, quite so. I only asked for information--excuse the question.
Go on."

"Well, meanwhile that sick boy was brought here, and those guests came
in, and we had tea, and--well, we made merry--to my ruin! Hearing of
your birthday afterwards, and excited with the circumstances of the
evening, I ran upstairs and changed my plain clothes once more for my
uniform [Civil Service clerks in Russia wear uniform.]--you must have
noticed I had my uniform on all the evening? Well, I forgot the money in
the pocket of my old coat--you know when God will ruin a man he first
of all bereaves him of his senses--and it was only this morning at
half-past seven that I woke up and grabbed at my coat pocket, first
thing. The pocket was empty--the purse gone, and not a trace to be
found!"

"Dear me! This is very unpleasant!"

"Unpleasant! Indeed it is. You have found a very appropriate
expression," said Lebedeff, politely, but with sarcasm.

"But what's to be done? It's a serious matter," said the prince,
thoughtfully. "Don't you think you may have dropped it out of your
pocket whilst intoxicated?"

"Certainly. Anything is possible when one is intoxicated, as you neatly
express it, prince. But consider--if I, intoxicated or not, dropped an
object out of my pocket on to the ground, that object ought to remain on
the ground. Where is the object, then?"

"Didn't you put it away in some drawer, perhaps?"

"I've looked everywhere, and turned out everything."

"I confess this disturbs me a good deal. Someone must have picked it up,
then."

"Or taken it out of my pocket--two alternatives."

"It is very distressing, because WHO--? That's the question!"

"Most undoubtedly, excellent prince, you have hit it--that is the very
question. How wonderfully you express the exact situation in a few
words!"

"Come, come, Lebedeff, no sarcasm! It's a serious--"

"Sarcasm!" cried Lebedeff, wringing his hands. "All right, all right,
I'm not angry. I'm only put out about this. Whom do you suspect?"

"That is a very difficult and complicated question. I cannot suspect the
servant, for she was in the kitchen the whole evening, nor do I suspect
any of my children."

"I should think not. Go on."

"Then it must be one of the guests."

"Is such a thing possible?"

"Absolutely and utterly impossible--and yet, so it must be. But one
thing I am s