never show a sign that I did not love her, and I should go on living
with her till I died."

He was at once ashamed of his own words; he pulled himself up and
said:

"But for aught I care, there might be no females at all. Let them
all go to the devil!"

The friends dressed and went into the pavilion. There Samoylenko
was quite at home, and even had a special cup and saucer. Every
morning they brought him on a tray a cup of coffee, a tall cut glass
of iced water, and a tiny glass of brandy. He would first drink the
brandy, then the hot coffee, then the iced water, and this must
have been very nice, for after drinking it his eyes looked moist
with pleasure, he would stroke his whiskers with both hands, and
say, looking at the sea:

"A wonderfully magnificent view!"

After a long night spent in cheerless, unprofitable thoughts which
prevented him from sleeping, and seemed to intensify the darkness
and sultriness of the night, Laevsky felt listless and shattered.
He felt no better for the bathe and the coffee.

"Let us go on with our talk, Alexandr Daviditch," he said. "I won't
make a secret of it; I'll speak to you openly as to a friend. Things
are in a bad way with Nadyezhda Fyodorovna and me . . . a very bad
way! Forgive me for forcing my private affairs upon you, but I must
speak out."