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212 not going to let you go, you are such a handsome little fellow.' 'But I beg of you to let go of me,' he says. 'No, come along with me.' 'I do not care to.' 'Well, then, I will go with you. Where are you going? I shall not leave you on any account!' I was such a shameless girl, much worse than anybody else."

"Perhaps, from the very reason, Anastasia Borísovna, that you were at heart more modest, more conscientious."

"Yes, it may be so. At least, I have seen this in others; not at that time, of course, but afterwards, I understood it. When I told him that I was going with him, at all events, he laughed, and said, 'If you want to, come along; but it will be useless.' He wanted to teach me a lesson, as he told me afterwards; it was disagreeable to him to have me clinging to him. And so I went along, and I told him all sorts of absurdities, but he kept silent; and so we went to his rooms. For a student he lived then very comfortably; he used to get from his pupils about twenty rubles a month, and he lived all by himself. I stretched out on his sofa, and said: 'Nu, where is your wine?' 'No,' says he, 'I shall give you no wine; but you can have tea, if you want.' 'With whiskey,' I said. 'No, without whiskey.' I began to do all sorts of foolish things, to be utterly shameless. He sat down and looked at me; but he did not show any interest, so offensive was it to him. Nowadays you can find such young men, Viéra Pavlovna; since that time young men have been growing morally better, but then it was a very rare thing. I began to get angry, and I scolded him. 'Since you are such a stick!' I said, 'so I am going.' 'What is the use of going now? you may as well have some tea; my landlady will bring the samovar right in. But don't abuse me.' And all the time he addressed me formally [with vui, you]. He said, 'You had better tell me who you are, and how you came to do such things.' I began to tell him everything that came into my mind. We make up stories to suit ourselves, and that's the reason no one ever believes us; but there are some, in spite of all that, whose stories are not made up; there are among us well-born and well-educated girls. He listened, and said: 'No; you have made up your story poorly. I should like to believe it, but it is impossible.' At this time we were drinking tea. And then he said: 'Do you know,