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He was plainly startled, made no answer to Raisky's inquiry after Leonti's health, and walked quickly away. Vera was still more disconcerted but pulled herself together, and followed Raisky into the house. "What is the matter with him?" asked Raisky. "He did not answer a word, but simply bolted. You were frightened, too, Vera.
Sunshine blazed from Leonti's eyes, he smiled so broadly that even the hair on his brow stirred with the dislocation caused. "A library like that?" He shook his head. "You must be mad." "Tell me, do you love me as you used to do?" "Why do you ask? Of course." "Then the books shall be yours for good and all, under one condition." "I take these books!"
Leonti did not hear, and did not even see Raisky go. When he reached home, Raisky gave his aunt an account of Leonti's condition, telling her that there was no danger, but that no sympathy would help matters. Yakob was sent to look after the sick man and Tatiana Markovna did not forget to send an abundant supper, with tea, rum, wine and all sorts of other things.
However, he decided to pursue the intruder, and promptly climbed the fence and followed him. The man stopped before a window and hammered on the pane. "That is no thief, possibly Mark," thought Raisky. He was right. "Philosopher, open! Quick!" cried the intruder. "Go round to the entrance," said Leonti's voice dully through the glass. "To the entrance, to wake the dog! Open!"
He wondered how Leonid Koslov was, whether he had changed, or whether he had remained what he had been before, a child for all his learning. He too was a good subject for an artist. Raisky thought of Leonti's beautiful wife, whose acquaintance he had made during his student days in Moscow, when she was a young girl.
"And who is lying there asleep?" she asked in new terror as she gazed on the sleeping Mark. "Gently, Grandmother, don't wake him. It is Mark." "Mark! Shall I send for the police! What have you to do with him? You have been drinking punch at night with Mark? What has come over you, Boris Pavlovich?" "I found him at Leonti's, we were both hungry. So I brought him here and we had supper."
"When you climbed over Leonti's fence, I thought you were a sensible individual, but now I see that you belong to the same kind of preaching person as Niel Andreevich...." "Is it true that you fired on him?" asked Raisky curiously. "What nonsense! I fired a shot among the pigeons to empty the barrel of my gun, as I was returning from hunting.
When he entered the corridor he heard the strains of a waltz and, he thought, the voice of Koslov's wife. He sent in his name and with it Leonti's letter. After a time the servant, with an air of embarrassment, came to tell him that Juliana Andreevna had gone with a party of friends to Zarskoe-Selo, and would travel direct from there to Moscow.
At home he worked zealously; visited with the sculptor and his students the Isaac Cathedral, where he stood in admiration before the work of Vitali; and he spent many hours in the galleries of the Hermitage. Overwhelmed with enthusiasm he urged Kirilov to start at once for Italy and Rome. He had not forgotten Leonti's commission, and sought out Juliana Andreevna in her lodgings.
Then he wondered whether the possibility could be entirely excluded, since passion wanders where he lists, and not in obedience to the convictions and dictates of man. He is invincible, and master of his own inexplicable moods. But Vera had never had any opportunity of meeting Mark, he concluded, and was merely afraid of him as every one else was. Leonti's condition was unchanged.
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