S. tried to make him out.
"As I was telling you," he went on to say, wiping his hands on his
jacket, "such people can't show any delicacy toward a man, a common
soldier, who hasn't much money either. That's beyond their strength. And
here recently, while I haven't received anything at all from my sister,
I have been conscious that they have changed toward me. This sheepskin
jacket, which I bought of a soldier, and which hasn't any warmth in it,
because it's all worn off" (and here he showed me where the wool was
gone from the inside), "it doesn't arouse in him any sympathy or
consideration for my unhappiness, but scorn, which he does not take
pains to hide. Whatever my necessities may be, as now when I have
nothing to eat except soldiers' gruel, and nothing to wear," he
continued, casting down his eyes, and pouring out for himself still
another glass of liquor, "he does not even offer to lend me some money,
though he knows perfectly well that I would give it back to him; but he
waits till I am obliged to ask him for it. But you appreciate how it is
for me to go to him. In your case I should say, square and fair, vous
etes audessus de cela, mon cher, je n'ai pas le sou.
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