"Will they talk long of my departure ?" came into his head; but who "they" were he did not quite know.

Next came a thought that made him wince and mutter incoherently.

It was the recollection of M.Cappele the tailor, and the six hundred and seventy-eight rubles he still owed him, and he recalled the words in which he had begged him to wait another year, and the look of perplexity and resignation which had appeared on the tailor's face.

'Oh, my God, my God!' he repeated, wincing and trying to drive away the intolerable thought.

'All the same and in spite of everything she loved me,' thought he of the girl they had talked about at the farewell supper.