Velchaninov began to grasp the position; something seemed to be dawning on Pavel Pavlovitch too. There was a look of uneasiness in his face; but he stood his ground.
"Not having the honour of your acquaintance," he answered majestically, "I imagine that you cannot have business of any sort with me."
"You had better hear me first and then give your opinion," the young man admonished him self-confidently, and, taking out a tortoiseshell lorgnette hanging on a cord, he examined through it the bottle of champagne standing on the table. When he had calmly completed his scrutiny of the bottle, he folded up the lorgnette and turned to Pavel Pavlovitch again.
"Alexandr Lobov."
"What do you mean by Alexandr Lobov?"
"That's me. Haven't you heard of me?"
"No."
"How should you, though? I've come on important business that chiefly concerns you. Allow me to sit down; I'm tired."
"Sit down," Velchaninov urged him; but the young man succeeded in sitting down before being invited to do so.
In spite of the increasing pain in his chest Velchaninov was interested in this impudent youth. In his pretty, childlike and rosy face, he fancied a remote resemblance to Nadya.
"You sit down too," the lad suggested to Pavel Pavlovitch, motioning him with a careless nod of the head to a seat opposite.
"Don't trouble; I'll stand."
"You'll be tired. You needn't go away, M. Velchaninov, if you like to stay."
"I've nowhere to go; I'm at home."
"As you please. I must confess I should prefer you to be present while I have an explanation with this gentleman. Nadyezhda Fedosyevna gave me rather a flattering account of you."
"Bah! When had she time to do that?"
"Why, just now. after you left; I've just come from there, too. I've something to tell you, M. Trusotsky." He turned round to Pavel Pavlovitch, who was standing, "We—that is, Nadyezhda Fedosyevna and I," he went on, letting his words drop one by one as he lolled carelessly in the armchair; "we've cared for each other for ever so long, and have given each other our promise. You are in our way now; I've come to suggest
