smiled, his eyes blinked, and his lips puckered up, which gave him a
very good-humoured appearance.

'Andrei Petrovitch most likely told you too that I went away with
some--unattractive people,' he said, still smiling.

Elena was a little confused, but she felt at once that Insarov must
always be told the truth.

'Yes,' she said decisively.

'What did you think of me?' he asked her suddenly.

Elena raised her eyes to him.

'I thought,' she said, 'I thought that you always know what you're
doing, and you are incapable of doing anything wrong.'

'Well--thanks for that. You see, Elena Nikolaevna,' he began, coming
closer to her in a confidential way, 'there is a little family of our
people here; among us there are men of little culture; but all are
warmly devoted to the common cause. Unluckily, one can never get on
without dissensions, and they all know me, and trust me; so they sent
for me to settle a dispute. I went.'

'Was it far from here?'

'I went about fifty miles, to the Troitsky district. There, near the
monastery, there are some of our people. At any rate, my trouble was
not thrown away; I settled the matter.'