could I ever have done so? You yourself have had many opportunities of seeing how incapable I am of deceit or chicanery. Why then, should this have fallen to my lot?⁠ ⁠… However, since you think me worthy of respect, my darling, I do not care, for you are far and away the best person in the world.⁠ ⁠… What do you consider to be the greatest social virtue? In private conversation Evstafi Ivanovitch once told me that the greatest social virtue might be considered to be an ability to get money to spend. Also, my comrades used jestingly (yes, I know only jestingly) to propound the ethical maxim that a man ought never to let himself become a burden upon anyone. Well, I am a burden upon no one. It is my own crust of bread that I eat; and though that crust is but a poor one, and sometimes actually a maggoty one, it has at least been earned , and therefore, is being put to a right and lawful use. What therefore, ought I to do? I know that I can earn but little by my labours as a copyist; yet even of that little I am proud, for it has entailed work