This man was, in my opinion, a regular spy from his very nature.

At every moment he knew the very latest gossip and all the trifling incidents of our town, especially the unpleasant ones, and it was surprising to me how he took things to heart that were sometimes absolutely no concern of his.

It always seemed to me that the leading feature of his character was envy.

When I told Stepan Trofimovitch the same evening of my meeting Liputin that morning and our conversation, the latter to my amazement became greatly agitated, and asked me the wild question: "Does Liputin know or not ?" I began trying to prove that there was no possibility of his finding it out so soon, and that there was nobody from whom he could hear it.

But Stepan Trofimovitch was not to be shaken.