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RUDIN. As for looking after her—yes, I’ll undertake that! There will be no difficulty in getting anything we want: if she likes, I will arrange a serenade under her window every night; I will sprinkle the coachmen with eau de cologne and strew flowers along the roads. And we shall both be simply new men, my dear boy; we shall enjoy ourselves so, we shall come back so fat that we shall be proof against the darts of love!’

‘You are always joking, Misha!’

‘I’m not joking at all. It was a brilliant idea of yours.’

‘No; nonsense!’ Volintsev shouted again. ‘I want to fight him, to fight him! ’

‘Again! What a rage you are in!’

A servant entered with a letter in his hand.

‘From whom?’ asked Lezhnyov.

‘From Rudin, Dmitri Nikolaitch. The Lasunsky’s servant brought it.’

‘From Rudin?’ repeated Volintsev, ‘to whom?’

‘To you.’

‘To me! give it me!’

Volintsev seized the letter, quickly tore it open, and began to read. Lezhnyov watched him attentively; a strange, almost joyful 181