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Grushnitski stood before me in violent agitation, his eyes cast down. But the struggle between his conscience and his vanity was of short duration. The captain of dragoons, who was sitting beside him, nudged him with his elbow.
And, moreover, melancholy in society is ridiculous, and too great gaiety is unbecoming"... She did not hear me to the end, but went away and sat beside Grushnitski, and they entered into a sort of sentimental conversation.
On seeing that, the captain spat and stamped his foot. "You are a fool, then, my friend," he said: "a common fool!... You trusted to me before, so you should obey me in everything now... But serve you right! Die like a fly!"... He turned away, muttering as he went: "But all the same it is absolutely against the rules." "Grushnitski!" I said.
Grushnitski stood with his head sunk on his breast, embarrassed and gloomy. "Let them be!" he said at length to the captain, who was going to pull my pistol out of the doctor's hands. "You know yourself that they are right." In vain the captain made various signs to him. Grushnitski would not even look. Meanwhile the doctor had loaded the pistol and handed it to me.
Since the last ball many of them have been sulky with me, especially the captain of dragoons; and now, it seems, a hostile gang is actually being formed against me, under the command of Grushnitski. He wears such a proud and courageous air... I am very glad; I love enemies, though not in the Christian sense. They amuse me, stir my blood.
Grushnitski smote the table with his fist and fell to walking to and fro across the room. I laughed inwardly and even smiled once or twice, but fortunately he did not notice. It is evident that he is in love, because he has grown even more confiding than heretofore. Moreover, a ring has made its appearance on his finger, a silver ring with black enamel of local workmanship.
"Listen," said Grushnitski very earnestly; "pray do not make fun of my love, if you wish to remain my friend... You see, I love her to the point of madness... and I think I hope she loves me too... I have a request to make of you. You will be at their house this evening; promise me to observe everything. I know you are experienced in these matters, you know women better than I... Women! Women!
I went softly behind them in order to listen to their conversation. "You torture me, Princess!" Grushnitski was saying. "You have changed dreadfully since I saw you last"... "You, too, have changed," she answered, casting a rapid glance at him, in which he was unable to detect the latent sneer. "I! Changed?... Oh, never! You know that such a thing is impossible!
"You are a fool," he said to Grushnitski rather loudly. "You can't understand a thing!... Let us be off, then, gentlemen!" The precipice was approached by a narrow path between bushes, and fragments of rock formed the precarious steps of that natural staircase. Clinging to the bushes we proceeded to clamber up. Grushnitski went in front, his seconds behind him, and then the doctor and I.
"Thieves, guard!"... they cried. A gunshot rang out; a smoking wad fell almost at my feet. Within a minute I was in my own room, undressed and in bed. My manservant had only just locked the door when Grushnitski and the captain began knocking for admission. "Pechorin! Are you asleep? Are you there?"... cried the captain. "I am in bed," I answered angrily. "Get up! Thieves!... Circassians!"...
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