“ ‘What do you want?’ said he. I was a bit abashed, but I was in such a rage.
“ ‘What do I want! Why, you might welcome a visitor and give him a drink. I’ve come to see you.’
“The German thought a minute and said, ‘Sit you.’
“I sat down. ‘Well, give me some vodka,’ I said.
“Here’s some vodka,’ he said, ‘drink it, pray.’
“Give me some good vodka,’ said I. I was in an awful rage, you know.
“ ‘It is good vodka.’
“I felt insulted that he treated me as though I were of no account, and above all with Luise looking on. I drank it off and said:
“ ‘What do you want to be rude for, German? You must make friends with me. I’ve come to you as a friend.’
“ ‘I cannot with you be friend,’ said he, ‘you are a simple soldier.’
“Then I flew into a fury.
“ ‘Ah, you scarecrow,’ I said, ‘you sausage-eater! But you know that from this moment I can do anything I like with you? Would you like me to shoot you with my pistol?’
“I pulled out my pistol, stood before him and put the muzzle straight at his head. The women sat more dead than alive, afraid to stir; the old man was trembling like a leaf, he turned pale and didn’t say a word.
“The German was surprised but he pulled himself together.
“ ‘I do not fear you,’ said he, ‘and I beg you as an honourable man to drop your joke at once and I do not fear you.’
“ ‘That’s a lie,’ said I, ‘you do!’
“Why, he did not dare to move his head away, he just sat there.
“ ‘No,’ said he, ‘you that will never dare.’
“ ‘Why don’t I dare?’ said I.
“ ‘Because,’ said he, ‘that is you strictly forbidden and for that they will you strictly punish.’
“The devil only knows what that fool of a German was after. If he hadn’t egged me on he’d have been living to this day. It all came from our disputing.
“ ‘So I daren’t, you think?’
“ ‘No.’
“ ‘I daren’t?’
“ ‘To treat me so you will never dare.’
“ ‘Well, there then, sausage!’ I went bang and he rolled off his chair. The women screamed.
“I put the pistol in my pocket and made off, and as I was going into the fortress I threw the pistol into the nettles at the gate.
“I went home, lay down on my bed and thought: They’ll come and take me directly.’ One hour passed and then another—they did not take me. And when it got dark, such misery came over me; I went out; I wanted to see Luise, whatever happened. I went by the watchmaker’s shop. There was a crowd there and police. I went to my old friend: ‘Fetch Luise!’ said I. I waited a little and then I saw Luise, running up. She threw herself on my neck and cried, ‘It’s all my fault,’ said she, ‘for listening to my aunt.’ She told me that her aunt had gone straight home after what happened that morning and was so frightened that she was taken ill, and said nothing. ‘She’s told no one herself and she’s forbidden me to,’ says she. ‘She is afraid and feels “let them do what they like.” No one saw us this morning,’ said Luise. He had sent his servant away too, for he was afraid of her. She would have scratched his eyes out, if she had known that he meant to get married. There were none of the workmen in the house either, he had sent them all out. He prepared the coffee himself and got lunch ready. And the relation had been silent all his life, he never used to say anything and when it had all happened that morning, he picked up his hat and was the first to go. ‘And no doubt he will go on being silent,’ said Luise. So it was. For a fortnight no one came to take me and no one had any suspicion of me. That fortnight, though you mayn’t believe it, Alexandr Petrovitch, was the happiest time in my life. Every day I met Luise. And how tender, how tender she grew to me! She would cry and say, ‘I’ll follow you wherever they send you, I’ll leave everything for you!’ It was almost more than I could bear, she wrung my heart so. Well, and within a fortnight they took me. The old man and the aunt came to an understanding and gave information against me. …”
“But excuse me,” I interrupted, “for that they could not have given you more than ten or twelve years at the utmost in the civil division, but you are in the special division. How can that be?”
“Oh, that is a different matter,” said Baklushin. “When I was brought to the court the captain swore at me with nasty words before the court. I couldn’t control myself and said to him, ‘What are you swearing for? Don’t you see you are in a court of justice, you scoundrel!’ Well, that gave a new turn to things, they tried me again and for everything together they condemned me to four thousand blows and sent me here in the special division. And when they brought me out for punishment, they brought out the captain too: me to walk down the ‘green street,’ and him to be deprived of
