by the end of the third day the incident of the eccentric lady and evgenie pavlovitch had attained enormous and mysterious proportions in his mind. he sorrowfully asked himself whether he had been the cause of this new "monstrosity," or was it... but he refrained from saying who else might be in fault. as for the letters n.p.b., he looked on that as a harmless joke, a mere childish piece of mischief so childish that he felt it would be shameful, almost dishonourable, to attach any importance to it.