"Come and see us," said Tatiana Nikolayevna at parting.
"Musn't do it," said I smilingly. "Doctor forbade."
"Oh, fiddlesticks! That doesn't mean us. In our house you are at home. And Alexis misses you."
I promised, and never did I make a promise with such assurance of fulfillment as this one. When reflecting upon these happy coincidences, does it not strike you, gentlemen experts, that Alexis had been condemned not by me alone, but also by someone else? In truth, however, there was no one else. Nothing could be more simple or logical.
The cast-iron paper-weight lay in its place, when on the eleventh of December, five o'clock in the afternoon, I entered the drawing-room of the Saveloffs. Both Alexis and Tatiana had been accustomed to rest the hour preceding dinner, which usually occurred at seven o'clock. They greeted me effusively.
