ad noticed how things were, I should make
no remark, but go to Dimitri and say, 'It is no use, my friend, for you
and I to conceal our feelings from one another. You know that my love
for your sister will terminate only with my life. Yet I know all; and
though you have deprived me of all hope, and have rendered me an unhappy
man, so that Nicolas Irtenieff will have to bewail his misery for the
rest of his existence, yet do you take my sister,' and I should lay
his hand in Lubotshka's. Then he would say to me, 'No, not for all the
world!' and I should reply, 'Prince Nechludoff, it is in vain for you to
attempt to outdo me in nobility. Not in the whole world does there exist
a more magnanimous being than Nicolas Irtenieff.' Then I should salute
him and depart. In tears Dimitri and Lubotshka would pursue me, and
entreat me to accept their sacrifice, and I should consent to do so,
and, perhaps, be happy ever afterwards--if only I were in love with
Varenika." These fancies tickled my imagination so pleasantly that I
felt as though I should like to communicate them to my friend; yet,
despite our mutual vow of frankness, I also felt as though I had not the
physical energy to do so.

Dimitri returned from Lubov Sergievna's room with some toothache
capsules which she had given him, yet in even greater pain, and
therefore in even greater depression, than before. Evidently no bedroom
had yet been prepared for me, for presently the boy who acted as
Dimitri's valet arrived to ask him where I was to sleep.

"Oh, go to the devil!" cried Dimitri, stamping his foot. "Vasika,
Vasika, Vasika!" he went on, the instant that the boy had left the room,
with a gradual raising of his voice at each repetition. "Vasika, lay me
out a bed on the floor."

"No, let ME sleep on the floor," I objected.

"Well, it is all one. Lie anywhere you like," continued Dimitri in the
same angry tone. "Vasika, why don't you go and do what I tell you?"

Evidently Vasika did not understand what was demanded of him, for he
remained where he was.

"What is the matter with you? Go and lay the bed, Vasika, I tell you!"
shouted Dimitri, suddenly bursting into a sort of frenzy; yet Vasika
still did not understand, but, blushing hotly, stood motionless.

"So you are determined to drive me mad, are you?"--and leaping from his
chair and rushing upon the boy, Dimitri struck him on the head with the
whole weight of his fist, until the boy rushed headlong from the room.