“‘Very simply. I found it under the chair on which my coat had been hung, so that the pocket-book must have slipped out of the pocket on to the floor!’ “‘Under the chair? It’s impossible! Why, you told me yourself you had hunted in every corner. How was it you came to overlook the most obvious place?’ “‘I should think I did look! I remember only too well how I looked! I crawled on all fours, felt the place with my hands, moving back the chairs because I couldn’t trust my own eyes: I saw there was nothing there, for the place was as smooth and empty as my hands, and yet I went on fumbling. You always see that weakness in anyone who is very anxious to find anything, when anything serious and important has been lost. A man sees there’s nothing there, the place is empty, and yet he peeps into it a dozen times.’ “‘Yes, I dare say; only, how was it seen?... I still don’t understand,’ muttered Myshkin, disconcerted. ‘You told me before it wasn’t there, and you had looked in that place, and then it suddenly turned up!’ “‘And then it suddenly turned up.’ “Myshkin looked strangely at Lebedyev. ‘And the general?’ he asked suddenly. ‘What about the general?...’ Lebedyev seemed at a loss again. “‘Oh dear! I ask you what did the general say when you found the pocket-book under the chair? You looked for it together, you know.’ “‘We did look together before. But that time, I confess, I held my tongue, and preferred not to tell him that the pocket-book had been found by me and alone.’ “‘But ... why? And the money--was it all there?’ “‘I opened the pocket-book. The money was untouched, every rouble of it.’ “‘You might have come to tell me,’ Myshkin observed thoughtfully. “‘I was afraid to disturb you, prince, in your personal and, so to say, absorbing interests, and besides, I made as though I had found nothing. I opened the pocket-book and looked at it, then I shut it and put it back under the chair.’ “‘But what for?’ “‘Oh, n-nothing, from curiosity,’ chuckled Lebedyev, rubbing his hands. “‘Then it has been lying there since the day before yesterday?’ “‘Oh, no; it only lay there for a day and a night. You see it was partly that I wanted the general to find it. For since I had found it, why should not the general notice the object, which lay conspicuous under the chair, so to speak, catching the eye.