The Adolescent

36 Pawn shop.

37 Let’s break it off there, my dear.

38 That goes without saying.

39 Distortion of French renseignee, “informed.”

40 It’s comical, but that’s what we’re going to do.

41 But let’s drop that.

42 That depends, my dear!

43 For your pretty eyes, my cousin!

44 Be it said between us.

45 Very proper.

46 The poetry in life.

47 What a charming person, eh? The songs of Solomon . . . no, it’s not Solomon, it’s David who put a young girl in his bed to warm him in his old age. Anyhow, David, Solomon . . .

48 That young beauty of David’s old age—it’s a whole poem.

49; Warming-pan scene.

50 But follow your mother, then [ . . . ] He has no heart, this child.

51 Furnished rooms.

52 Here!

53 Poor boy!

54 You understand, my girl? You have money . . .

55 But you haven’t slept at all, Maurice!

56 Shut up, I’ll sleep afterwards.

57; Saved!

58 Never was a man so cruel, so Bismarck, as this being, who looks at a woman as a chance bit of filth. A woman, what is she in our epoch? “Kill her!”—that’s the last word of the Academie Francaise.

59 Alas, what good would it have done me to reveal it sooner . . . and wouldn’t I have gained just as much by keeping my shame hidden all my life? Perhaps it’s not honorable for a young woman to explain herself so freely in front of monsieur, but finally I’ll admit to you that if I were allowed to wish for something, oh, it would be to plunge my knife into his heart, but with my eyes averted, for fear that his execrable look would make my arm tremble and freeze my courage! He killed that Russian priest, monsieur, he tore out his red beard to sell it to a hair artist on the Blacksmiths’ [i.e., Kuznetsky] Bridge, just near the Maison of Monsieur Andrieux—the latest novelties, articles from Paris, linen, shirts, you know it, don’t you? . . . Oh, monsieur, when friendship gathers wife, children, sisters, friends around the table, when a lively happiness enflames my heart, I ask you, monsieur; is any happiness preferable to that which everyone enjoys? But he laughs, monsieur, this execrable and inconceivable monster, and if it weren’t through the agency of Monsieur Andrieux, never, oh, never would I be . . . But what is it, monsieur, what’s wrong with you, monsieur?

60 By this furious and inconceivable monster.

61 Where are you going, monsieur?

62 But it isn’t far, monsieur, it’s not far at all, it’s not worth the trouble of putting on your shuba, it’s nearby, monsieur.

63 This way, monsieur, it’s this way!

64; He’s leaving, he’s leaving!

65 But he’ll kill me, monsieur, he’ll kill me!

66 Calumny . . . something of it always remains.

67 Notice.

68 Excuse me, my dear.

69 But let’s leave that.

70 Wait (in mispronounced French).

71 Mister prince, do you have a silver rouble for us, not two, but only one, if you will?

72 We pay you back.

73 In railway carriages.

74 ;Ah, you damned . . .

Say, then, would you like me to crack your skull, my friend!

75 My friend, here’s Dolgorovky, the other my friend [sic].

76 Here he is!