appeared to be in the last-named mood.
He kept looking from his father to myself without speaking, except
when directly addressed, at which times he smiled the self-deprecatory,
forced smile under which he was accustomed to conceal his feelings, and
more especially that feeling of shame for his father which he must have
experienced in our house.

"So, Nicolas Petrovitch," the old man said to me, following me
everywhere about the room as I went through the operation of dressing,
while all the while his fat fingers kept turning over and over a silver
snuff-box with which my grandmother had once presented me, "as soon as
ever I heard from my son that you had passed your examinations so well
(though of course your abilities are well-known to everyone), I at once
came to congratulate you, my dear boy. Why, I have carried you on my
shoulders before now, and God knows that I love you as though you were
my own son. My Ilinka too has always been fond of you, and feels quite
at home with you."

Meanwhile the said Ilinka remained sitting silently by the window,
apparently absorbed in contemplation of my three-cornered cap, and every
now and then angrily muttering something in an undertone.

"Now, I also wanted to ask you, Nicolas Petrovitch." His father went
on, "whether my son did well in the examinations? He tells me that he is
going to be in the same faculty as yourself, and that therefore you will
be able to keep an eye on him, and advise him, and so on."

"Oh, yes, I suppose he passed well," I replied, with a glance at Ilinka,
who, conscious of my gaze, reddened violently and ceased to move his
lips about. "And might he spend the day with you?" was the father's next
request, which he made with a deprecatory smile, as though he stood in
actual awe of me, yet always keeping so close to me, wherever I moved,
that the fumes of the drink and tobacco in which he had been indulging
were constantly perceptible to my nostrils. I felt greatly vexed at his
placing me in such a false position towards his son, as well as at
his distracting my attention from what was, to me, a highly important
operation--namely, the operation of dressing; while, over and above all,
I was annoyed by the smell of liquor with which he followed me about.
Accordingly, I said very coldly that I could not have the pleasure of
Ilinka's company that day, since I should be out.

"Ah! I suppose you are going to see your sister?" put in Ilinka with a
smile, but