Ivan became terribly strangely embarrassed for some reason, and with a flushed face started mumbling something about a trip to a sanitarium in Yalta.

" There you are, there you are... it's not surprising! But Berlioz, I repeat, amazes me... He's not only very well-read, he's also very shrewd. Although I must say in his defense that Woland could certainly pull the wool over the eyes of someone far shrewder than he."

" What?! " Ivan shouted out in return.

" Quiet! "

Ivan slapped himself on the forehead and said in a croak, " Now I understand, now I understand. He had the letter 'W on his visiting card. Well I'll be, so that's how it is! " He fell into a state of befuddled silence for awhile, gazing out at the moon floating beyond the window grille, and then he said, " So that means he really could have been with Pontius Pilate, doesn't it? Since he was already born then, right? And they call me a madman! " Ivan added, pointing in outrage at the door.

A bitter grimace distorted the guest's mouth.

" Let's look truth straight in the eye, " said the guest, turning his face toward the nocturnal orb passing through the clouds beyond the window grille. " You and I are both mad, there's no denying it! You see, he shook you up—and you lost your mind because you obviously had tendencies in that direction to begin with. But there's no doubt at all that what you told me really did happen. But it's so bizarre that even a psychiatrist of genius like Stravinsky naturally didn't believe you. Was he the one who examined you? " (Ivan nodded). " The man you conversed with was at Pilate's, and he was also at Kant's for breakfast, and now he's paying a visit to Moscow."

1 14 The Master and Margarita

" Yes, and the devil only knows what mischief he'll do here! Shouldn't we try and catch him? " said the not-entirely suppressed old Ivan, rearing his head from inside the new one, although without much confidence.

" You already tried and look where it got you, " was the guest's ironic response. " I wouldn't advise others to try it either. But rest assured that he'll cause more trouble. Oh, how annoying it is that you were the one to meet him, and not I. Even though I'm all burnt-out and the coals have turned to ash, I swear, I would have given up Praskovya Fyodorovna's keys for a meeting like that, and they're all I have to give up. I'm a poor man! "

" But what do you need him for? "

The guest was sad for a long time, and his face twitched, but finally he said, " You see, strangely enough, I'm in here for the same reason you are, namely, because of Pontius Pilate." Here the guest looked around anxiously and said, " The fact is that a year ago I wrote a novel about Pilate."

" You're a writer? " asked the poet with interest.

The guest's face darkened, and he shook his fist at Ivan and then said, " I am the Master." He became stern, reached into the pocket of his robe and took out a grimy black cap that had the letter " M" embroidered on it in yellow silk. He put the cap on and modeled it for Ivan in profile and full face, in order to prove that he was the Master. " She sewed this for me with her own hands, " he added mysteriously.

" What's your name? "

" I no longer have a name, " the strange guest replied with gloomy disdain. " I gave it up, just as I've given up everything else in life. Let's drop the subject."

" Well, then at least tell me about your novel, " requested Ivan tactfully.

" By all means. My life has turned out to be anything but ordinary, if I do say so myself, " die guest began.