We had not far to go, to the Torgovoy Bridge. For the first minute we were silent. I kept wondering how he would begin. I fancied that he would try me, sound me, probe me. But he spoke without any beating about the bush, and went straight to the point.
"I am very uneasy about one circumstance, Ivan Petrovitch," he began, "about which I want to speak to you first of all, and to ask your advice. I made up my mind some time ago to forgo what I have won from my lawsuit and to give up the disputed ten thousand to Ichmenyev. How am I to do this?"
"It cannot be that you really don't know how to act," was the thought that flashed through my mind. "Aren't you making fun of me?"
"I don't know, prince," I answered as simply as I could; "in something else, that is, anything concerning Natalya Nikol
