He found out the secret, however, and after some reflection took the money and went to Varvara Petrovna to thank her.

She received him with warmth, but on this occasion, too, he shamefully disappointed her.

He only stayed five minutes, staring blankly at the ground and smiling stupidly in profound silence, and suddenly, at the most interesting point, without listening to what she was saying, he got up, made an uncouth sideways bow, helpless with confusion, caught against the lady's expensive inlaid work-table, upsetting it on the floor and smashing it to atoms, and walked out nearly dead with shame.

Liputin blamed him severely afterwards for having accepted the hundred roubles and having even gone to thank Varvara Petrovna for them, instead of having returned the money with contempt, because it had come from his former despotic mistress.

He lived in solitude on the outskirts of the town, and did not like any of us to go and see him.