And if I insisted, it's only because I'm very fond of our poor friend, _notre irascible ami_, and have always taken an interest in him....

In my opinion that man changed his former, possibly over-youthful but yet sound ideas, too abruptly.

And now he says all sorts of things about _notre Sainte Russie_ to such a degree that I've long explained this upheaval in his whole constitution, I can only call it that, to some violent shock in his family life, and, in fact, to his unsuccessful marriage.

I, who know my poor Russia like the fingers on my hand, and have devoted my whole life to the Russian people, I can assure you that he does not know the Russian people, and what's more..." "I don't know the Russian people at all, either, and I haven't time to study them," the engineer snapped out again, and again he turned sharply on the sofa.

Stepan Trofimovitch was pulled up in the middle of his speech.
"He is studying them, he is studying them," interposed Liputin.