But Stepan Trofimovitch was a generous man of exalted impulses.

A wonderfully fine inspiration occurred to his mind: when Petrusha returned, to lay on the table before him the maximum price of fifteen thousand roubles without a hint at the sums that had been sent him hitherto, and warmly and with tears to press _ce cher fils_ to his heart, and so to make an end of all accounts between them.

He began cautiously and indirectly unfolding this picture before Varvara Petrovna.

He hinted that this would add a peculiarly noble note to their friendship...

to their "idea." This would set the parents of the last generation--and people of the last generation generally--in such a disinterested and magnanimous light in comparison with the new frivolous and socialistic younger generation.