"'Yes, you did--you sent in your papers on the first of--April.' (I had never taken that letter back!) "'Fedosey Nikolaitch! I can't believe my ears, I can't believe my eyes! Is this you?' "'It is me, why?' "'My God!' "'I am sorry, sir. I am very sorry that you made up your mind to retire from the service so early. A young man ought to be in the service, and you've begun to be a little light-headed of late. And as for your character, set your mind at rest: I'll see to that! Your behaviour has always been so exemplary!' "'But that was a little joke, Fedosey Nikolaitch! I didn't mean it, I just gave you the letter for your fatherly ... that's all.' "'That's all? A queer joke, sir! Does one jest with documents like that? Why, you are sometimes sent to Siberia for such jokes. Now, good-bye. I am busy. We have the Inspector here--the duties of the service before everything; you can kick up your heels, but we have to sit here at work. But I'll get you a character---- Oh, another thing: I've just bought a house from Matveyev. We are moving in in a day or two. So I expect I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you at our new residence. _Bon voyage!_' "I ran home. "'We are lost, granny!' "She wailed, poor dear, and then I saw the page from Fedosey Nikolaitch's running up with a note and a bird-cage, and in the cage there was a starling. In the fullness of my heart I had given her the starling. And in the note there were the words: 'April 1st,' and nothing more. What do you think of that, gentlemen?" "What happened then? What happened then?" "What then! I met Fedosey Nikolaitch once, I meant to tell him to his face he was a scoundrel." "Well?" "But somehow I couldn't bring myself to it, gentlemen." A LITTLE HERO A STORY At that time I was nearly eleven, I had been sent in July to spend the holiday in a village near Moscow with a relation of mine called T., whose house was full of guests, fifty, or perhaps more.... I don't remember, I didn't count. The house was full of noise and gaiety. It seemed as though it were a continual holiday, which would never end. It seemed as though our host had taken a vow to squander all his vast fortune as rapidly as possible, and he did indeed succeed, not long ago, in justifying this surmise, that is, in making a clean sweep of it all to the last stick.