t
nearly recovered, and ready to go with him.

"So much for your trying to smoke!" said he as he gazed at the remnants
of my debauch. "It is a silly thing to do, and waste of money as well. I
long ago promised myself never to smoke. But come along; we have to call
for Dubkoff."

XIV. HOW WOLODA AND DUBKOFF AMUSED THEMSELVES

THE moment that Dimitri entered my room I perceived from his face,
manner of walking, and the signs which, in him, denoted ill-humour--a
blinking of the eyes and a grim holding of his head to one side, as
though to straighten his collar--that he was in the coldly-correct frame
of mind which was his when he felt dissatisfied with himself. It was
a frame of mind, too, which always produced a chilling effect upon my
feelings towards him. Of late I had begun to observe and appraise my
friend's character a little more, but our friendship had in no way
suffered from that, since it was still too young and strong for me to
be able to look upon Dimitri as anything but perfect, no matter in what
light I regarded him. In him there were two personalities, both of
which I thought beautiful. One, which I loved devotedly, was kind, mild,
forgiving, gay, and conscious of being those various things. When he was
in this frame of mind his whole exterior, the very tone of his voice,
his every movement, appeared to say: "I am kind and good-natured, and
rejoice in being so, and every one can see that I so rejoice." The other
of his two personalities--one which I had only just begun to apprehend,
and before the majesty of which I bowed in spirit--was that of a man who
was cold, stern to himself and to others, proud, religious to the point
of fanaticism, and pedantically moral. At the present moment he was, as
I say, this second personality.

With that frankness which constituted a necessary condition of our
relations I told him, as soon as we entered the drozhki, how much it
depressed and hurt me to see him, on this my fete-day in a frame of mind
so irksome and disagreeable to me.

"What has upset you so?" I asked him. "Will you not tell me?"

"My dear Nicolas," was his slow reply as he gave his head a nervous
twitch to one side and blinked his eyes, "since I have given you my word
never to conceal anything from you, you have no reason to suspect me of
secretiveness. One cannot always be in exactly the same mood, and if I
seem at all put out, that is all there is to say about it."

"What a marvellously open,