And as to your question about Captain Lebyadkin, he made his acquaintance before any of us did, six years ago in Petersburg, in that obscure, if one may so express it, epoch in the life of Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, before he had dreamed of rejoicing our hearts by coming here.

Our prince, one must conclude, surrounded himself with rather a queer selection of acquaintances.

It was at that time, it seems, that he made acquaintance with this gentleman here." "Take care, Liputin.

I warn you, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch meant to be here soon himself, and he knows how to defend himself." "Why warn me?
I am the first to cry out that he is a man of the most subtle and refined intelligence, and I quite reassured Varvara Petrovna yesterday on that score.

'It's his character,' I said to her, 'that I can't answer for.' Lebyadkin said the same thing yesterday: 'A lot of harm has come to me from his character,' he said.