War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy

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СКАЧАТЬ The purse was not there.

      “That’s a miwacle.”

      “Wait, haven’t you dropped it?” said Rostóv, picking up the pillows one at a time and shaking them.

      He pulled off the quilt and shook it. The purse was not there.

      “Dear me, can I have forgotten? No, I remember thinking that you kept it under your head like a treasure,” said Rostóv. “I put it just here. Where is it?” he asked, turning to Lavrúshka.

      “I haven’t been in the room. It must be where you put it.”

      “But it isn’t?...”

      “You’re always like that; you thwow a thing down anywhere and forget it. Feel in your pockets.”

      “No, if I hadn’t thought of it being a treasure,” said Rostóv, “but I remember putting it there.”

      Lavrúshka turned all the bedding over, looked under the bed and under the table, searched everywhere, and stood still in the middle of the room. Denísov silently watched Lavrúshka’s movements, and when the latter threw up his arms in surprise saying it was nowhere to be found Denísov glanced at Rostóv.

      “Wostóv, you’ve not been playing schoolboy twicks...”

      Rostóv felt Denísov’s gaze fixed on him, raised his eyes, and instantly dropped them again. All the blood which had seemed congested somewhere below his throat rushed to his face and eyes. He could not draw breath.

      “And there hasn’t been anyone in the room except the lieutenant and yourselves. It must be here somewhere,” said Lavrúshka.

      “Now then, you devil’s puppet, look alive and hunt for it!” shouted Denísov, suddenly, turning purple and rushing at the man with a threatening gesture. “If the purse isn’t found I’ll flog you, I’ll flog you all.”

      Rostóv, his eyes avoiding Denísov, began buttoning his coat, buckled on his saber, and put on his cap.

      “I must have that purse, I tell you,” shouted Denísov, shaking his orderly by the shoulders and knocking him against the wall.

      “Denísov, let him alone, I know who has taken it,” said Rostóv, going toward the door without raising his eyes. Denísov paused, thought a moment, and, evidently understanding what Rostóv hinted at, seized his arm.

      “Nonsense!” he cried, and the veins on his forehead and neck stood out like cords. “You are mad, I tell you. I won’t allow it. The purse is here! I’ll flay this scoundwel alive, and it will be found.”

      “I know who has taken it,” repeated Rostóv in an unsteady voice, and went to the door.

      “And I tell you, don’t you dahe to do it!” shouted Denísov, rushing at the cadet to restrain him.

      But Rostóv pulled away his arm and, with as much anger as though Denísov were his worst enemy, firmly fixed his eyes directly on his face.

      “Do you understand what you’re saying?” he said in a trembling voice. “There was no one else in the room except myself. So that if it is not so, then...”

      He could not finish, and ran out of the room.

      “Ah, may the devil take you and evewybody,” were the last words Rostóv heard.

      Rostóv went to Telyánin’s quarters.

      “The master is not in, he’s gone to headquarters,” said Telyánin’s orderly. “Has something happened?” he added, surprised at the cadet’s troubled face.

      “No, nothing.”

      “You’ve only just missed him,” said the orderly.

      The headquarters were situated two miles away from Salzeneck, and Rostóv, without returning home, took a horse and rode there. There was an inn in the village which the officers frequented. Rostóv rode up to it and saw Telyánin’s horse at the porch.

      In the second room of the inn the lieutenant was sitting over a dish of sausages and a bottle of wine.

      “Ah, you’ve come here too, young man!” he said, smiling and raising his eyebrows.

      “Yes,” said Rostóv as if it cost him a great deal to utter the word; and he sat down at the nearest table.

      Both were silent. There were two Germans and a Russian officer in the room. No one spoke and the only sounds heard were the clatter of knives and the munching of the lieutenant.

      When Telyánin had finished his lunch he took out of his pocket a double purse and, drawing its rings aside with his small, white, turned-up fingers, drew out a gold imperial, and lifting his eyebrows gave it to the waiter.

      “Please be quick,” he said.

      The coin was a new one. Rostóv rose and went up to Telyánin.

      “Allow me to look at your purse,” he said in a low, almost inaudible, voice.

      With shifting eyes but eyebrows still raised, Telyánin handed him the purse.

      “Yes, it’s a nice purse. Yes, yes,” he said, growing suddenly pale, and added, “Look at it, young man.”

      Rostóv took the purse in his hand, examined it and the money in it, and looked at Telyánin. The lieutenant was looking about in his usual way and suddenly seemed to grow very merry.

      “If we get to Vienna I’ll get rid of it there but in these wretched little towns there’s nowhere to spend it,” said he. “Well, let me have it, young man, I’m going.”

      Rostóv did not speak.

      “And you? Are you going to have lunch too? They feed you quite decently here,” continued Telyánin. “Now then, let me have it.”

      He stretched out his hand to take hold of the purse. Rostóv let go of it. Telyánin took the purse and began carelessly slipping it into the pocket of his riding breeches, with his eyebrows lifted and his mouth slightly open, as if to say, “Yes, yes, I am putting my purse in my pocket and that’s quite simple and is no one else’s business.”

      “Well, young man?” he said with a sigh, and from under his lifted brows he glanced into Rostóv’s eyes.

      Some flash as of an electric spark shot from Telyánin’s eyes to Rostóv’s and back, and back again and again in an instant.

      “Come here,” said Rostóv, catching hold of Telyánin’s arm and almost dragging him to the window. “That money is Denísov’s; you took it...” he whispered just above Telyánin’s ear.

      “What? What? How dare you? What?” said Telyánin.

      But these words came like a piteous, despairing cry and an entreaty for pardon. As soon as Rostóv heard them, an enormous load of doubt fell from him. He was glad, and at the same instant began to pity the miserable man who stood before him, but the task he had begun had to be completed.

      “Heaven СКАЧАТЬ