Pagina 381 di 3800

"Do you understand what you're saying?" he said in a trembling

voice. "There was no one else in the room except myself. So that

if it is not so, then..."

He could not finish, and ran out of the room.

"Ah, may the devil take you and evewybody," were the last words

Rostov heard.

Rostov went to Telyanin's quarters.

"The master is not in, he's gone to headquarters," said

Telyanin's orderly. "Has something happened?" he added, surprised

at the cadet's troubled face.

"No, nothing."

"You've only just missed him," said the orderly.

The headquarters were situated two miles away from Salzeneck, and

Rostov, without returning home, took a horse and rode there.

There was an inn in the village which the officers frequented.

Rostov rode up to it and saw Telyanin's horse at the porch.

In the second room of the inn the lieutenant was sitting over a

dish of sausages and a bottle of wine.

"Ah, you've come here too, young man!" he said, smiling and

raising his eyebrows.