"It does not matter now how I obtained my information about you. It is quite sufficient I know all your sins. _You drink._ You, a mere boy--a callow creature that has but lately left school--swig schnapps like a cobbler's apprentice. Hold your tongue, don't try to defend yourself, I know everything--and much more than you think. Well, God forbid!--if you are bent on going down the broad path you are welcome to do it, so far as I'm concerned. Still, I'll give you a warning: drink has made more than one of your sort acquainted with the inside of a prison. Lay these words of mine to heart. My long-suffering is great, but even an angel's patience can be exhausted. The officers of a regiment are mutually related as members of one family; but don't forget that an unworthy member who tarnishes the honour of the family is ruthlessly cast out." "Here I stand paralysed with fright, and my tongue is numbed," thought Romashov, as he stared, as though hypnotized, at the little silver ring in the Colonel's ear. "At this moment I ought to tell him straight out that I do not in the least degree value the honour of belonging to this worthy family, and that I shall be delighted to leave it to enter the reserves; but have I the courage to say so?" His lips moved, he found a difficulty in swallowing, but he stood still, as he had throughout the interview. "But let us," continued Shulgovich in the same harsh tone, "examine more closely your conduct in the past. In the previous year--practically as soon as you entered the service, you requested leave on account of your mother's illness, nay, you even produced a sort of letter about it. Well, in such cases an officer cannot, you know, openly express his doubts as to the truth of a comrade's word. But I take this opportunity of telling you in private that I had my own opinion then about that story. You understand?"