"Under the chair?
That can't be, you told me you searched in every corner; how could you have missed it in the most important place?"
"It's a fact that I looked, sir!
I remember very, very well that I looked there, sir!
I went down on all fours, felt the place with my hands, moved the chair aside, not believing my own eyes: I saw there was nothing there, an empty and smooth space, like the palm of my hand, sir, and I went on feeling all the same.
Such faintheartedness always repeats itself with a man when he wants very much to find something ... in the case of a considerable and sad loss, sir: one sees that there's nothing there, an empty space, and yet one looks fifteen times over."
"Yes, granted; only how can it be, though? ...
I still don't understand," the prince muttered confusedly. "You say it wasn't there before, that you searched in that spot, and suddenly it turned up there?"
"And suddenly it turned up there, sir!"
The prince gave Lebedev a strange look.
"And the general?" he asked suddenly.
"What about the general, sir?" Lebedev again did not understand.
"Ah, my God!
I'm asking you, what did the general say when you found the wallet under the chair?
Didn't you look for it together before?"
"Together before, sir.
But this time, I confess, sir, I said nothing and preferred not to tell him I found the wallet all by myself."
"Wh . . . why so?
Is the money all there?"
"I opened the wallet; the money was all there, even to the last rouble, sir."
"You might at least have come and told me," the prince observed pensively.
"I was afraid to disturb you personally, Prince, considering your personal and, perhaps, extraordinary, so to speak, impressions; besides, I myself made it look as if I hadn't found anything.
I opened the wallet, examined it, then closed it and put it back under the chair."
"What on earth for?"
"Just so, sir; out of further curiosity, sir," Lebedev suddenly tittered, rubbing his hands.
"So it's lying there now, for the third day?"
"Oh, no, sir; it lay there only one day.
You see, I partly wanted the general to find it, too, sir.
Because if I finally found it, why shouldn't the general also find an object sticking out from under the chair and, so to speak, striking the eye?
I took that chair several times and moved it, so that the wallet wound up in full view, but the general never noticed it at all, and so it went on for the whole day.
He's obviously very absentminded now, and hard to make out; he talks, tells stories, laughs, guffaws, then suddenly gets terribly angry with me, I don't know why, sir.
As we were finally going out of the room, I purposely left the door open; he hesitated, was about to say something, probably afraid for the wallet with so much money in it, then suddenly became terribly angry and said nothing, sir; before we'd gone two steps down the street, he abandoned me and went the other way.
We came together only that evening in the tavern."
"But did you finally take the wallet from under the chair?"
"No, sir; that same night it disappeared from under the chair, sir."
"So where is it now?"
"Here, sir," Lebedev suddenly laughed, rising from the chair to his full height and looking pleasantly at the prince. "It suddenly turned up here, in the skirt of my own frock coat.
Here, kindly look for yourself, feel it, sir."
Indeed, it was as if a whole pouch had been formed in the left skirt of the frock coat, right in front, in full view, and by feeling it one could tell at once that it was a leather wallet, which had fallen there through a torn pocket.
"I took it out and looked, it's all there, sir.
I put it back and since yesterday morning I've been walking around like that, carrying it in my skirt, it even hits against my legs."
"And you don't notice it?"
"And I don't notice it, heh, heh!
And imagine, my much-esteemed Prince—though the subject is unworthy of such special attention from you—my pockets are always in good condition, and now suddenly, in one night, such a hole!
I started examining it curiously—as if somebody had cut it with a penknife; it's almost incredible, sir!"
"And . . . the general?"
"He was angry all day yesterday and today; he's terribly displeased, sir; first he's joyful and bacchic even to the point of flattery, then he's sentimental to the point of tears, then he suddenly gets so angry that I even turn coward, by God; I'm not a military man after all, sir.
Yesterday we're sitting in the tavern, and, as if by accident, my skirt is exposed to view, a big bump; he looks askance, gets angry.
He hasn't looked me straight in the eye for a long time, sir, except when he's very drunk or waxes sentimental; but yesterday a couple of times he gave me such a look that a chill ran down my spine.
Anyhow, I intend to find the wallet tomorrow, but before tomorrow I'll spend another little evening having fun with him."