“Oh, no, no, no! There you are quite out of it, though you are cunning. You really surprise me. I thought that you had some information about it.⁠ ⁠… H’m⁠ ⁠… Stavrogin⁠—it’s quite the opposite, quite.⁠ ⁠… Avis au lecteur .”

“Do you mean it? And can it be so?” Lembke articulated mistrustfully. “Yulia Mihailovna told me that from what she heard from Petersburg he is a man acting on some sort of instructions, so to speak.⁠ ⁠…”

“I know nothing about it; I know nothing, absolutely nothing. Adieu. Avis au lecteur! ” Abruptly and obviously Pyotr Stepanovitch declined to discuss it.

He hurried to the door.

“Stay, Pyotr Stepanovitch, stay,” cried Lembke. “One other tiny matter and I won’t detain you.”

He drew an envelope out of a table drawer.