that this precious
Kolpikoff is a known scamp and sharper, as well as, above all things,
a coward, and that he was expelled from his regiment by his brother
officers because, having had his face slapped, he would not fight? But
how came you to let him get away?" he added, with a kindly smile and
glance. "Surely he could not have said more to you than he did when he
called you a cad?"

"No," I admitted with a blush.

"Well, it was not right, but there is no great harm done," said Dimitri
consolingly.

Long afterwards, when thinking the matter over at leisure, I suddenly
came to the conclusion that it was quite possible that Kolpikoff took
the opportunity of vicariously wiping off upon me the slap in the face
which he had once received, just as I myself took the opportunity of
vicariously wiping off upon the innocent Dubkoff the epithet "cad" which
Kolpikoff had just applied to me.

XVII. I GET READY TO PAY SOME CALLS

On awaking next morning my first thoughts were of the affair with
Kolpikoff. Once again I muttered to myself and stamped about the room,
but there was no help for it. To-day was the last day that I was to
spend in Moscow, and it was to be spent, by Papa's orders, in my
paying a round of calls which he had written out for me on a piece of
paper--his first solicitude on our account being not so much for our
morals or our education as for our due observance of the convenances. On
the piece of paper was written in his swift, broken hand-writing: "(1)
Prince Ivan Ivanovitch WITHOUT FAIL; (2) the Iwins WITHOUT FAIL; (3)
Prince Michael; (4) the Princess Nechludoff and Madame Valakhina if you
wish." Of course I was also to call upon my guardian, upon the rector,
and upon the professors.

These last-mentioned calls, however, Dimitri advised me not to pay:
saying that it was not only unnecessary to do so, but not the thing.
However, there were the other visits to be got through. It was the first
two on the list--those marked as to be paid "WITHOUT FAIL"--that most
alarmed me. Prince Ivan Ivanovitch was a commander-in-chief, as well
as old, wealthy, and a bachelor. Consequently, I foresaw that vis-a-vis
conversation between him and myself--myself a sixteen-year-old
student!--was not likely to be interesting. As for the Iwins, they too
were rich--the father being a departmental official of high rank who had
only on one occasion called at our house during my grandmother's time.
Since her death, I had remar