“Certainly. Anything is possible when one is intoxicated, as you neatly express it, prince. But consider⁠—if I, intoxicated or not, dropped an object out of my pocket on to the ground, that object ought to remain on the ground. Where is the object, then?”

“Didn’t you put it away in some drawer, perhaps?”

“I’ve looked everywhere, and turned out everything.”

“I confess this disturbs me a good deal. Someone must have picked it up, then.”

“Or taken it out of my pocket⁠—two alternatives.”

“It is very distressing, because who ⁠—? That’s the question!”

“Most undoubtedly, excellent prince, you have hit it⁠—that is the very question. How wonderfully you express the exact situation in a few words!”

“Come, come, Lebedeff, no sarcasm! It’s a serious⁠—”