aware that young boobies are never sparing of the wildest promises, if
only they can gain their ends... but to say nothing of that, could you
suppose that I--a noble gentleman of ancient family, Semyon Matveitch
Koltovsky--would ever give my consent to such a marriage? Or did you
mean to dispense with the parental blessing?... Did you mean to run
away, get married in secret, and then come back, go through a nice
little farce, throw yourself at my feet, in the hope that the old man
will be touched.... Answer me, damn you!'

I only bent my head. He could kill me, but to force me to speak--that
was not in his power.

He walked up and down a little.

'Come, listen to me,' he began in a calmer voice. 'You mustn't think...
don't imagine... I see one must talk to you in a different manner.
Listen; I understand your position. You are frightened, upset.... Pull
yourself together. At this moment I must seem to you a monster... a
despot. But put yourself in my position too; how could I help being
indignant, saying too much? And for all that I have shown you that I am
not a monster, that I too have a heart. Remember how I treated you on my
arrival here and afterwards till... till lately... till the illness of
Mihail Semyonitch. I don't wish to boast of my beneficence, but I should
have thought simple gratitude ought to have held you back from the
slippery path on which you were determined to enter!'

Semyon Matveitch walked to and fro again, and standing still patted me
lightly on the arm, on the very arm which still ached from his violence,
and was for long after marked with blue bruises.