'You're babbling too much, Liputin,' the latter muttered angrily.
'Mysteries! Secrets! Where did we get so many mysteries and secrets all of a sudden!' Stepan Trofimovich exclaimed, not restraining himself.
The engineer frowned, blushed, heaved his shoulders, and started out of the room.
'Alexei Nilych even snatched away his quirt, sir, broke it, and threw it out the window, and there was a big quarrel,' Liputin added.
'What are you babbling for, Liputin, it's stupid, what for?' Alexei Nilych at once turned back again.
'And why conceal out of modesty the noblest impulses of one's soul—your soul, that is, sir, I'm not talking about mine.'
'How stupid this is... and quite unnecessary... Lebyadkin is stupid and completely empty—useless for action and... completely harmful. Why do you babble various things? I'm leaving.'
'Ah, what a pity!' Liputin exclaimed, with a bright smile. 'Otherwise I'd get you to laugh, Stepan Trofimovich, with yet another little anecdote. I even came with that in mind, though anyway you must have heard it yourself. Well, let's wait till next time, Alexei Nilych is in such a hurry... Good-bye, sir. The anecdote is about Varvara Petrovna, she really made me laugh the day before yesterday, she sent for me on purpose, it's really killing! Good- bye, sir.'
But here Stepan Trofimovich simply fastened on to him: he seized him by the shoulders, turned him sharply back into the room, and sat him on a chair. Liputin even got scared.
'But it really is, sir!' he began, looking cautiously at Stepan Trofimovich from his chair. 'She suddenly sent for me and asked 'confidentially' what I think in my own opinion: is Nikolai Vsevolodovich crazy, or in his right mind? Isn't that surprising?'
'You're out of your mind!' Stepan Trofimovich muttered, and suddenly seemed beside himself: 'Liputin, you know perfectly well that you came here only in order to tell me some abomination of that sort and... something worse still!'
I instantly recalled his surmise that Liputin not only knew more about our situation than we did, but even knew something that we ourselves would never know.
'For pity's sake, Stepan Trofimovich!' Liputin muttered, as if terribly frightened, 'for pity's sake...'
'Keep still and begin! I beg you, too, Mr. Kirillov, to come back and be present, I beg you! Sit down. And you, Liputin, begin directly, simply... and without any little excuses!'
'If I'd only known you'd be so astounded by it, I wouldn't have begun at all, sir ... But I really did think you already knew everything from Varvara Petrovna herself!'
'You didn't think anything of the kind! Begin, begin, I tell you!'
'Only do me a favor, sit down yourself, or else I'll be sitting and you'll be... running about in front of me all agitated. It will be awkward, sir.'
Stepan Trofimovich restrained himself and sank imposingly into an armchair. The engineer sullenly fixed his eyes on the ground. Liputin looked at them with wild delight.
'How shall I begin... you've got me so confused...'
VI
'All of a sudden, the day before yesterday, she sent her servant to me: 'You are requested,' he says, 'to visit tomorrow at twelve o'clock.' Can you imagine? I dropped what I was doing, and yesterday at twelve sharp was there ringing the bell. I'm taken straight to the drawing room; I wait for a minute—she comes in, sits me down, sits down facing me. I sit and just can't believe it; you know how she's always treated me! The lady begins directly, without dodging, in her usual way: 'You remember,' she says, 'that four years ago Nikolai Vsevolodovich, while ill, committed several strange acts, so that the whole town was puzzled until everything became clear. One of these acts concerned you personally. Nikolai Vsevolodovich then came to see you after he recovered and at my request. I am also informed that he had spoken with you several times before. Tell me, frankly and straightforwardly, how did you...' (here she hesitated a little) 'how did you find Nikolai Vsevolodovich then ... how did you regard him generally... what opinion were you able to form of him... and do you have of him now?...'
'Here she really hesitated, so that she even stopped for a whole minute and suddenly blushed. I got scared. She begins again, not so much in a moving tone—that wouldn't be like her—but so imposingly:
“‘I wish you,' she says, 'to understand me fully and correctly,' she says. 'I sent for you now because I consider you a perspicacious and sharp-witted man, capable of forming an accurate observation' (such compliments!). 'You,' she says, 'will also understand, of course, that this is a mother speaking to you... Nikolai Vsevolodovich has experienced certain misfortunes and many upheavals in his life. All this,' she says, 'could influence his frame of mind. Of course,' she says, 'I am not talking about madness—that could never be!' (spoken firmly and with pride). 'But there could be something strange, peculiar, a certain turn of thought, an inclination towards certain special views' (these are all her exact words, and I marveled, Stepan Trofimovich, at how exactly Varvara Petrovna is able to explain the matter. A lady of high intelligence!). 'I myself, at least,' she says, 'have noticed a certain constant restlessness in him, and an urge towards peculiar inclinations. But I am a mother, while you are an outsider and are therefore capable, given your intelligence, of forming a more independent opinion. I implore you, finally' (uttered just like that: 'I implore'), 'to tell me the whole truth, without any contortions, and if at the same time you give me your promise never to forget in future that I have spoken with you confidentially, you may expect of me a complete and henceforth permanent readiness to show my gratitude at every opportunity.' Well, what do you think of that, sir!'
'You... you astound me so...' Stepan Trofimovich stammered, 'that I don't believe you...'
'No, but observe, observe,' Liputin picked up, as if he had not even heard Stepan Trofimovich, 'how great the trouble and worry must be, if such a question is addressed from such a height to such a man as me, and if she stoops so far as to beg for secrecy. What can it be, sir? Has she received some unexpected news about Nikolai Vsevolodovich?'
'I don't know... any news... it's some days since I've seen... but I must observe to you...' Stepan Trofimovich went on stammering, apparently barely able to master his thoughts, 'but I must observe to you, Liputin, that if this was told you confidentially, and now, in front of everyone, you...'
'Absolutely confidentially! God strike me dead if I... And so what if now... what of it, sir? Are we strangers here,
