\u201cA company of us got together once, and we drank a bit, it\u2019s true, and suddenly somebody suggested that each of us, without leaving the table, tell something about himself, but something that he himself, in good conscience, considered the worst of all the bad things he\u2019d done in the course of his whole life; and that it should be frank, above all, that it should be frank, no lying!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA strange notion!\u201d said the general.<\/p>\n \u201cStrange as could be, Your Excellency, but that\u2019s what was good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA ridiculous idea,\u201d said Totsky, \u201cthough understandable: a peculiar sort of boasting.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAnd was it a success?\u201d asked Nastasya Filippovna.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact is that it wasn\u2019t, it turned out badly, people actually told all sorts of things, many told the truth, and, imagine, many even enjoyed the telling, but then they all felt ashamed, they couldn\u2019t stand it! On the whole, though, it was quite amusing\u2013in its own way, that is.\u201d<\/p>\n