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I know it for a fact, it was repeated to me exactly! What do you

say to that?"

"Well, anyway, there's the evidence."

"I am not talking of the evidence now, I am talking about that

question, of their own idea of themselves. Well, so they squeezed

and squeezed him and he confessed: 'I did not find it in the

street, but in the flat where I was painting with Dmitri.' 'And

how was that?' 'Why, Dmitri and I were painting there all day,

and we were just getting ready to go, and Dmitri took a brush and

painted my face, and he ran off and I after him. I ran after him,

shouting my hardest, and at the bottom of the stairs I ran right

against the porter and some gentlemen--and how many gentlemen

were there I don't remember. And the porter swore at me, and the

other porter swore, too, and the porter's wife came out, and

swore at us, too; and a gentleman came into the entry with a

lady, and he swore at us, too, for Dmitri and I lay right across

the way. I got hold of Dmitri's hair and knocked him down and

began beating him. And Dmitri, too, caught me by the hair and

began beating me.