LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. You see, Mítya, my brother turned me out. As long as I had a little money, I strolled about in warm places; now I have no money, and they won't let me come in anywhere. All I had was two francs and some-odd centimes! Not a great capital! It wouldn't build a stone house! It wouldn't buy a village! What could one do with such a capital? Where put it? Not take it to a bank! So then I took this capital and drank it up!--squandered it!--That's the way of it! MÍTYA. Why do you drink, Lyubím Kárpych? That makes you your own enemy. LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. Why do I drink? From stupidity! Yes, from my own stupidity. Why did you think I drank? MÍTYA. You'd better stop it. LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. It's impossible to stop; I've got started on this track. MÍTYA. What track? LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. Ah, well, listen--you're a kind soul--what this track was. Only, you listen, take note of it. I was left when my father died, just a kid, tall as a bean pole, a little fool of twenty. The wind whistled through my head like an empty garret! My brother and I divided up things: he took the factory himself, and gave me my share in money, drafts and promissory notes. Well, now, how he divided with me is not our business--God be his judge! Well, then I went to Moscow to get money on the drafts. I had to go! One must see people and show oneself, and learn good manners. Then again, I was such a handsome young man, and I'd never seen the world, or spent the night in a private house. I felt I must try everything! First thing, I got myself dressed like a dandy. "Know our people!" says I. That is, I played the fool to a rarity! Of course, I started to visit all the taverns: "_Schpeelen sie polka_! Give us a bottle off the ice!" I got together enough friends to fill a pond! I went to the theatres-- MÍTYA. Well, Lyubím Kárpych, it must be very nice in the theatre. LYUBÍM KÁRPYCH. I kept going to see the tragedies; I liked them very much, only I didn't see anything decently, and I didn't understand anything because I was nearly always drunk. [_Rises_] "Drink beneath the dagger of Prokóp Lyapunóv." [_Sits down_] By this sort of life I soon squandered all my money; what was left I intrusted to my friend Afrikán Kórshunov, on his oath and word of honor; with him I had drunk and gone on sprees, he was responsible for all my folly, he was the chief mixer of the mash! He fooled me and showed me up, and I was stuck like a crab on a sand bank. I had nothing to drink, and I was thirsty--what was to be done? Where could I go to drown my misery? I sold my clothes, all my fashionable things; got pay in bank-notes, and changed them for silver, the silver for copper, and then everything went and all was over. MÍTYA. How did you live, Lyubím Kárpych?