Seryozha looked intently at his father, then shifted his eyes to
the table, and shrugged his shoulders.

"What have I done to you?" he asked in perplexity, blinking. "I
haven't been in your study all day, and I haven't touched anything."

"Natalya Semyonovna has just been complaining to me that you have
been smoking. . . . Is it true? Have you been smoking?"

"Yes, I did smoke once. . . . That's true. . . ."

"Now you see you are lying as well," said the prosecutor, frowning
to disguise a smile. "Natalya Semyonovna has seen you smoking twice.
So you see you have been detected in three misdeeds: smoking, taking
someone else's tobacco, and lying. Three faults."

"Oh yes," Seryozha recollected, and his eyes smiled. "That's true,
that's true; I smoked twice: to-day and before."

"So you see it was not once, but twice. . . . I am very, very much
displeased with you! You used to be a good boy, but now I see you
are spoilt and have become a bad one."

Yevgeny Petrovitch smoothed down Seryozha's collar and thought:

"What more am I to say to him!"

"Yes, it's not right," he continued. "I did not expect it of you.
In the first place, you ought not to take tobacco that does not