‘I don’t like borrowing from my own friends; I dislike it,’ grumbled Denisov.
‘But if you won’t take money from me like a comrade, you’ll offend me. I’ve really got it,’ repeated Rostov.
‘Oh, no.’ And Denisov went to the bed to take the purse from under the pillow.
‘Where did you put it, Rostov?’
‘Under the lower pillow.’
‘But it’s not there.’ Denisov threw both the pillows on the floor. There was no purse. ‘Well, that’s a queer thing.’
‘Wait a bit, haven’t you dropped it?’ said Rostov, picking the pillows up one at a time and shaking them. He took off the quilt and shook it. The purse was not there.
‘Could I have forgotten? No, for I thought that you keep it like a secret treasure under your head,’ said Rostov. ‘I laid the purse here. Where is it?’ He turned to Lavrushka.
‘I never came into the room. Where you put it, there it must be.’
‘But it isn’t.’
‘You’re always like that; you throw things down anywhere and forget them. Look in your pockets.’
‘No, if I hadn’t thought of its being a secret treasure,’ said Rostov, ‘but I remember where I put it.’
Lavrushka ransacked the whole bed, glanced under it and under the table, ransacked the whole room and stood still in the middle of the room. Denisov watched Lavrushka’s movements in silence, and when Lavrushka flung up his hands in amazement to signify that it was nowhere, he looked round at Rostov.
‘Rostov, none of your schoolboy jokes.’
Rostov, feeling Denisov’s eyes upon him, lifted his eyes and instantly dropped them again. All his blood, which felt as though it had been
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locked up somewhere belo\v his throat, rushed to his face and eyes. He could hardly draw his breath.
‘And there’s been no one in the room but the lieutenant and yourselves. It must be here somewhere,’ said Lavrushka.
‘Now then, you devil’s puppet, bestir yourself and look for it! ’ Denisov shouted suddenly, turning purple and dashing at the valet with a threatening gesture. ‘The purse is to be found, or I’ll flog you! I’ll flog you all! ’
Rostov, his eyes avoiding Denisov, began buttoning up his jacket, fastening on his sword, and putting on his forage-cap.
‘I tell you the purse is to be found,’ roared Denisov, shaking the orderly by the shoulders and pushing him against the wall.
‘Denisov, let him be; I know who has taken it,’ said Rostov, going towards the door without raising his eyes.
Denisov stopped, thought a moment, and evidently understanding Rostov’s hint, he clutched him by the arm.
‘Nonsense!’ he roared so that the veins stood out on his neck and forehead like cords. ‘I tell you, you’ve gone out of your mind; I won’t allow it. The purse is here; I’ll flay the skin off this rascal, and it will be here.’
‘I know who has taken it,’ repeated Rostov, in a shaking voice, and he went to the door.
‘And I tell you, you’re not to dare to do it,’ shouted Denisov, making a dash at the ensign to detain him. But Rostov pulled his arm away, lifted his eyes, and looked directly and resolutely at Denisov with as much fury as if he had been his greatest enemy.
‘Do you understand what you’re saying?’ he said in a tremblirig voice; ‘except me, there has been no one else in the room. So that, if it’s not so, why then . . .’
He could not utter the rest, and ran out of the room.
‘Oh, damn you and all the rest,’ were the last words Rostov heard.
Rostov went to Telyanin’s quarters.
‘The master’s not at home, he’s gone to the staff,’ Telyanin’s orderly told him. ‘Has something happened?’ the orderly added, wondering at the ensign’s troubled face.
‘No, nothing.’
‘You’ve only just missed him,’ said the orderly.
The staff quarters were two miles and a half from Salzeneck. Not having found him at home, Rostov took his horse and rode to the quarters of the staff. In the village, where the staff was quartered, there was a restaurant which the officers frequented. Rostov reached the restaurant and saw Telyanin’s horse at the entry.
In the second room the lieutenant was sitting over a dish of sausages and a bottle of wine.
‘Ah, you have come here too, young man,’ he said, smiling and lifting his eyebrows.
‘Yes,’ said Rostov, speaking as though the utterance of the word cost him great effort; and he sat down at the nearest table.
IIS WAR AND PEACE
Both were silent; there were two Germans and a Russian officer in the room.' Every one was mute, and the only sounds audible were the clatter of knives on the plates and the munching of the lieutenant. When Telyanin had finished his lunch, he took out of his pocket a double purse; with his little white fingers, that were curved at the tips, he parted the rings, took out some gold, and raising his eyebrows, gave the money to the attendant.
‘Make haste, please,’ he said.
The gold was new. Rostov got up and went to Telyanin.
‘Let me look at the purse,’ he said in a low voice, scarcely audible.
With shifting eyes, but eyebrows still raised, Telyanin gave him the purse.
‘Yes, it’s a pretty purse . . . yes . . .’ he said, and suddenly he turned white. ‘You can look at it, young man,’ he added.
