All at once there was a gleam of something sly and mocking in his eyes.
"I'll tell you what drives me to it," he said sullenly, and looking round him he bent down to Ivan Ossipovitch's ear.

The refined Alyosha Telyatnikov moved three steps farther away towards the window, and the colonel coughed over the Golos.

Poor Ivan Ossipovitch hurriedly and trustfully inclined his ear; he was exceedingly curious.

And then something utterly incredible, though on the other side only too unmistakable, took place.

The old man suddenly felt that, instead of telling him some interesting secret, Nikolay had seized the upper part of his ear between his teeth and was nipping it rather hard.