MÍTYA. How could I? What are you saying?
LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. You see, Mítya, my brother turned me out. As long as I had a little money, I strolled about in warm places; now I have no money, and they won't let me come in anywhere. All I had was two francs and some-odd centimes! Not a great capital! It wouldn't build a stone house! It wouldn't buy a village! What could one do with such a capital? Where put it? Not take it to a bank! So then I took this capital and drank it up!—squandered it!—That's the way of it!
MÍTYA. Why do you drink, Lyubím Kárpych? That makes you your own enemy.
LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. Why do I drink? From stupidity! Yes, from my own stupidity.
Why did you think I drank?
MÍTYA. You'd better stop it.
LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. It's impossible to stop; I've got started on this track.
MÍTYA. What track?
LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. Ah, well, listen—you're a kind soul—what this track was. Only, you listen, take note of it. I was left when my father died, just a kid, tall as a bean pole, a little fool of twenty. The wind whistled through my head like an empty garret! My brother and I divided up things: he took the factory himself, and gave me my share in money, drafts and promissory notes. Well, now, how he divided with me is not our business—God be his judge! Well, then I went to Moscow to get money on the drafts. I had to go! One must see people and show oneself, and learn good manners. Then again, I was such a handsome young man, and I'd never seen the world, or spent the night in a private house. I felt I must try everything! First thing, I got myself dressed like a dandy. "Know our people!" says I. That is, I played the fool to a rarity! Of course, I started to visit all the taverns: "Schpeelen sie polka! Give us a bottle off the ice!" I got together enough friends to fill a pond! I went to the theatres—
MÍTYA. Well, Lyubím Kárpych, it must be very nice in the theatre.
LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. I kept going to see the tragedies; I liked them very much, only I didn't see anything decently, and I didn't understand anything because I was nearly always drunk. [Rises] "Drink beneath the dagger of Prokóp Lyapunóv." [Sits down] By this sort of life I soon squandered all my money; what was left I intrusted to my friend Afrikán Kórshunov, on his oath and word of honor; with him I had drunk and gone on sprees, he was responsible for all my folly, he was the chief mixer of the mash! He fooled me and showed me up, and I was stuck like a crab on a sand bank. I had nothing to drink, and I was thirsty—what was to be done? Where could I go to drown my misery? I sold my clothes, all my fashionable things; got pay in bank-notes, and changed them for silver, the silver for copper, and then everything went and all was over.