“ ‘And do you know Nerchínsk?’
“ ‘Indeed I do, I lived there.’
“ ‘And do you know Tatyána Ivánovna?’
“ ‘Of course I do!’
“ ‘Permit me to ask you—were you, too, exiled?’
“ ‘Yes, I had the misfortune to suffer, and you?’
“ ‘We are all exiles of the 14th of December. It is strange that we should not know you, if you, too, were exiled for the 14th. Permit me to know your name!’
“ ‘Fédorov.’
“ ‘Also for the 14th?’
“ ‘No, for the 18th.’
“ ‘For the 18th?’
“ ‘For the 18th of September, for a gold watch. I was falsely accused of having stolen it, and I suffered, though innocent.’ ”
All of them rolled in laughter, except the storyteller, who with a most serious face looked at the outstretched hearers and swore that it was a true story.
Soon after the story one of the young men got up and went to the club. He passed through the halls which were filled with tables at which old men were playing whist; turned into the “infernal region,” where the famous “Puchin” had begun his game against the “company;” stood for awhile near one of the billiard-tables, where, holding on to the cushion, a