“He is in a hurry, he is going home!” Liputin tried to persuade him. “He’ll tell Lizaveta Nikolaevna to-morrow.”
“Lizaveta!” he yelled again. “Stay, don’t go! A variation:
‘Among the Amazons a star, Upon her steed she flashes by, And smiles upon me from afar, The child of aris-to-cra-cy!’ To a Starry Amazon.You know that’s a hymn. It’s a hymn, if you’re not an a*s! The duffers, they don’t understand! Stay!”
He caught hold of my coat, though I pulled myself away with all my might.
“Tell her I’m a knight and the soul of honour, and as for that Dasha … I’d pick her up and chuck her out.… She’s only a serf, she daren’t …”
At this point he fell down, for I pulled myself violently out of his hands and ran into the street. Liputin clung on to me.
“Al
