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 that is the law of Nature," he said once; "but I detest a roundabout way of going to a mark when a straight road could be cut with ease. That's old Kolfort's way, however. He's just like a man grubbing in a cellar for coals, and will insist on having every little bit of rubbish through his fingers and storing and binning it for future use, as if he expected the day to come when rubbish would be worth more than coal, whereas one vigorous use of the shovel would give him all the coal he wants at once.

I was far from displeased to find him out of conceit with the General, but said nothing.

"What could have been more abominable and disgusting than his treatment of you to-day?" he exclaimed, when my wine had begun to heat him. "It's that sort of barbarism that brings us Russians into such ill-repute. I know what would have happened. He would have given that order to shoot you without turning a hair and then would have drawn up some bogus report or other about you having made a desperate attack upon his life, and have called upon me to witness it. I suppose he hates you for some reason, and that's at the bottom of it. There are plenty of black pages in his past, I can tell you."

"You had better not," I answered, smiling. I did not wish him to have the after-reflection that he had been talking too freely. If he were inclined to give me his confidence he should not lack opportunities; and I pressed him warmly, therefore, to come and see me frequently.

He came the next day when Zoiloff was with me, and again on the following day, when Spernow had returned, and we encouraged his intimacy in every possible way. Zoiloff, in the meantime, had made guarded