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"I know for a certainty," said he, "that M. Leminof loved his wife, that she was unfaithful to him that he finished by suspecting her, and that he revenged himself " "False! false!" cried the priest with deep emotion. "To hear you one would believe that Count Kostia killed his wife. You have heard lying reports.
"This young man is a somnambulist, and the conclusion of your little story is, that his window must be barred. I will speak to Count Kostia about it." Upon which Fritz slunk away discomfited and much confused at the turn the adventure had taken.
"Is that all, my child?" said Father Alexis. "I will hoist you up here." Gilbert raised himself by his right arm, and Father Alexis drawing him up, they soon found themselves seated face to face, uniting to their heart's content the blue smoke of their chibouques. "Have you not noticed," said Father Alexis, "that Kostia Petrovitch has been in a charming humor to-day?
"Tell me, if you please," said Count Kostia, addressing him gayly, "what you think of our new comrade?" Gilbert then noticed a fifth guest, whose face was not absolutely unknown to him.
Then in a convulsed voice, he exclaimed: "You lie! The Countess Olga could never have given herself to a serf!" "Refer to your memory once more, Kostia Petrovitch. You forget that in her eyes I was not a serf, but an illustrious physician, a sort of great man. However, I will console you. The Countess Olga loved me no more than I loved her.
There is yet time!" But he only muttered: "I see through it all!" Then turning to Vladimir he said in a tone of authority, "Follow me, sir! It is right that Count Kostia should receive your last breath." Vladimir reflected for a moment, then rising, said: "You are right. I must see him again before I die; but give me your arm, for the poison begins to work and my legs are very weak."
But when he entered Razumov's room late in the evening it was with an unaccustomed soberness of manner, almost solemnly. "It's done," he said. Razumov sitting bowed, his clasped hands hanging between his knees, shuddered at the familiar sound of these words. Kostia deposited slowly in the circle of lamplight a small brown-paper parcel tied with a piece of string.
At last Kostia Petrovitch lost patience, seized me in his powerful hands, set me upon my feet, and pushing me violently against the wall, cried in a voice of thunder, 'Vladimir Paulitch, spare me your effeminate contortions, and remember who I am and who you are. One day I saw an ugly piece of charcoal in the road.
Count Kostia was of an age when even the strongest mind feels the necessity of occasional relaxation, and he would have been glad to have near him a pliant, agreeable companion, and enchanted could that companion have been his secretary. Gilbert strode across the terrace, and, leaning over the parapet, gazed long and silently at the highroad.
When I reached the age of twenty, Kostia Petrovitch made me enter the school of medicine, and some years later I directed his hospital and a private asylum which he founded by my advice. My talents and success soon made me known. I was spoken of at Moscow, and was called there upon consultations.
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