Ivan Ossipovitch approached the subject in a roundabout way, almost in a "whisper, but kept getting a little muddled.

Nikolay looked anything but cordial, not at all as a relation should.

He was pale and sat looking down and continually moving his eyebrows as though trying to control acute pain.
"You have a kind heart and a generous one, Nicolas," the old man put in among other things, "you're a man of great culture, you've grown up in the highest circles, and here too your behaviour has hitherto been a model, which has been a great consolation to your mother, who is so precious to all of us....

And now again everything has appeared in such an unaccountable light, so detrimental to all! I speak as a friend of your family, as an old man who loves you sincerely and a relation, at whose words you cannot take offence....

Tell me, what drives you to such reckless proceedings so contrary to all accepted rules and habits?
What can be the meaning of such acts which seem almost like outbreaks of delirium ?" Nikolay listened with vexation and impatience.