Though he was a slender young fellow, almost like a girl, still he was all ready for a quarrel. His eyes flash fire; he looks as if he could eat him alive. The big guest was a strong, tremendous fellow, no match for Nekhliudof. "Wha-at!" says he, "you call me a boor?" Yelling out these words, he raises his hand to strike him. Then everybody there rushed up, and seized them both by the arms, and separated them. After much talk, Nekhliudof says, "Let him give me satisfaction: he has insulted me." "Not at all," said the other. "I don't care a whit about any satisfaction. He's nothing but a boy, a mere nothing. I'll pull his ears for him." "If you aren't willing to give me satisfaction, then you are no gentleman." And, saying this, he almost cried. "Well, and you, you are a little boy: nothing you say or do can offend me." Well, we separated them,--led them off, as the custom is, to different rooms. Nekhliudof and the prince were friends. "Go," says the former; "for God's sake make him listen to reason." The prince went. The big man says, "I ain't afraid of any one," says he. "I am not going to have any explanation with such a baby. I won't do it, and that's the end of it." Well, they talked and talked, and then the matter died out, only the big guest ceased to come to us any more. As a result of this,--this row, I might call it,--he was regarded as quite the cock of the walk. He was quick to take offence,--I mean Nekhliudof,--as to so many other things, however, he was as unsophisticated as a new-born babe. I remember once, the prince says to Nekhliudof, "Whom do you keep here?" "No one," says he. "What do you mean,--'no one'!" "Why should I?" says Nekhliudof. "How so,--why should you?" "I have always lived thus. Why shouldn't I continue to live the same way?" "You don't say so? Did you ever!" And saying this, the prince burst into a peal of laughter, and the whiskered bárin also roared. They couldn't get over it. "What, never?" they asked. "Never!" They were dying with laughter. Of course I understood well enough what they were laughing at him for. I keep my eyes open. "What," thinks I, "will come of it?" "Come," says the prince, "come right off." "No; not for any thing," was his answer. "Now, that is absurd," says the prince. "Come along!" They went out. They came back at one o'clock. They sat down to supper; quite a crowd of them were assembled. Some of our very best customers,--Atánof, Prince Razin, Count Shustakh, Mirtsof. And all congratulate Nekhliudof, laughing as they do so. They call me in: I see that they are pretty jolly. "Congratulate the bárin," they shout. "What on?" I ask. How did he call it? His initiation or his enlightenment; I can't remember exactly. "I have the honor," says I, "to congratulate you." And he sits there very red in the face, yet he smiles. Didn't they have fun with him though!