quiver, and he returned kindness and sympathy with cold looks and sharp
words, were repelled by him and even pursued him with their dislike.
Some called him egotistic and proud, while others declared themselves
enchanted with him; some again maintained that he was theatrical, others
that he was not to be trusted. Two or three friends judged otherwise. "A
noble nature," they said, "most honourable, but with all its virtues,
nervous, passionate, excitable, fiery tempered...." So there had never
been any unanimous opinion of him.

Even in early childhood while he lived with his aunt, and later, after
his school-days had begun, he showed the same enigmatic and
contradictory traits.

It might be expected that the first effort of a new boy would be to
listen to the teacher's questions and the pupils' answers. But Raisky
stared at the teacher, as if seeking to impress on his memory the
details of his appearance, his speech, how he took snuff; he looked at
his eyebrows, his beard, then at his clothes, at the cornelian seal
suspended across his waistcoat, and so on. Then he would observe each of
the other boys and note their peculiarities, or he would study his own
person, and wonder what his own face was like, what the others thought
of him....

"What did I say just now?" interrupted the master, noticing Boris's
wandering glance.

To the teacher's amazement Boris replied word for word, "And what is the
meaning of this?" He had listened mechanically, and had caught the
actual syllables.