"Promise me that you will give it back," Kamarowsky went on, clasping me
closer to him. "If you refuse me this favor I shall go away and you
shall never see me again. For the sake of our Emilia--for the sake of
little Grania--accept it from me. And let me be your friend from now on
and forever."
It took a long time to reconcile me to the sense of my own debasement.
He wrote out a check to me for ten thousand rubles and put it into my
hands. He closed my fingers forcibly over it, pressing them closely and
thanking me in a moved voice.
Then he went away, and I was left alone with the check and Prilukoff's
sealed envelope.
I had wanted five thousand rubles and here I was with twenty thousand
before me!
Poor, good Kamarowsky! And poor, dear, kind Prilukoff!
"I do not see why I should really return this to Prilukoff!" I said to
myself.
I broke the seals and opened the envelope that he had presented to me
with so much solemnity. Petrified with astonishment I gazed at its
contents. Then I laughed softly.
"On the whole, I think I _will_ return it," I said, and laid the
envelope aside.
It was full of old newspaper cuttings!