“Don’t talk of my father, Nikolai Eremyitch.”

“Get away! who are you to give me orders?”

“I tell you, don’t talk of him!”

“And I tell you, don’t forget yourself.—However necessary you think yourself, if our lady has a choice between us, it’s not you’ll be kept, my dear! None’s allowed to mutiny, mind!” Pavel was shaking with fury. “As for the wench, Tatyana, she deserves—wait a bit, she’ll get something worse!”

Pavel dashed forward with uplifted fists, and the clerk rolled heavily on the floor.

“Handcuff him, handcuff him,” groaned Nikolai Eremyitch—

I won’t take upon myself to describe the end of this scene; I fear I have wounded the reader’s delicate susceptibilities as it is.

The same day I returned home. A week later I heard that Madame Losnyakova had kept both Pavel and Nikolai in her service, but had sent away the girl Tatyana; it appeared she was not wanted.

THE THIEF

BY FEODOR MIKAILOVITCH DOSTOIEVSKI