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you are ever so much more polite than you were last time
and I know why: that great resolution of yours-.’
‘Don’t speak of my resolution,’ cried Ivan, savagely.
‘I understand, I understand, c’est noble, c’est charmant,
you are going to defend your brother and to sacrifice your-
self... C’est chevaleresque.’
‘Hold your tongue, I’ll kick you!’
‘I shan’t be altogether sorry, for then my object will be
attained. If you kick me, you must believe in my reality, for
people don’t kick ghosts. Joking apart, it doesn’t matter to
me, scold if you like, though it’s better to be a trifle more
polite even to me. ‘Fool, flunkey!’ what words!’
‘Scolding you, I scold myself,’ Ivan laughed again, ‘you
are myself, myself, only with a different face. You just say
what I am thinking... and are incapable of saying anything
new!’
‘If I am like you in my way of thinking, it’s all to my cred-
it,’ the gentleman declared, with delicacy and dignity.
‘You choose out only my worst thoughts, and what’s more,
the stupid ones. You are stupid and vulgar. You are awfully
stupid. No, I can’t put up with you! What am I to do, what
am I to do?’ Ivan said through his clenched teeth.
‘My dear friend, above all things I want to behave like
a gentleman and to be recognised as such,’ the visitor be-
gan in an access of deprecating and simple-hearted pride,
typical of a poor relation. ‘I am poor, but... I won’t say very
honest, but... it’s an axiom generally accepted in society that
I am a fallen angel. I certainly can’t conceive how I can ever
have been an angel. If I ever was, it must have been so long

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