Page 721 - the-idiot

fifteen or twenty times, likely enough!’
‘Oh, quite so, of course. But how was it in your case?—I
don’t quite understand,’ said the bewildered prince. ‘You
say it wasn’t there at first, and that you searched the place
thoroughly, and yet it turned up on that very spot!’
‘Yes, sir—on that very spot.’ The prince gazed strangely
at Lebedeff. ‘And the general?’ he asked, abruptly.
‘The—the general? How do you mean, the general?’ said
Lebedeff, dubiously, as though he had not taken in the drift
of the prince’s remark.
‘Oh, good heavens! I mean, what did the general say
when the purse turned up under the chair? You and he had
searched for it together there, hadn’t you?’
‘Quite so—together! But the second time I thought better
to say nothing about finding it. I found it alone.’
‘But—why in the world—and the money? Was it all
there?’
‘I opened the purse and counted it myself; right to a sin-
gle rouble.’
‘I think you might have come and told me,’ said the
prince, thoughtfully.
‘Oh—I didn’t like to disturb you, prince, in the midst of
your private and doubtless most interesting personal reflec-
tions. Besides, I wanted to appear, myself, to have found
nothing. I took the purse, and opened it, and counted the
money, and shut it and put it down again under the chair.’
‘What in the world for?’
‘Oh, just out of curiosity,’ said Lebedeff, rubbing his
hands and sniggering.

0 The Idiot