But Mikhaïl Ivanuitch was no longer in the room; he had already put on his army coat.
"Hold him, Piotr! hold him!" cried Anna Petrovna. Piotr opened wide his mouth at such an extraordinary command, but Mikhaïl Ivanuitch was already running down the front doorsteps.
IX.
"Nu! how was it?" asked Marya Alekséyevna, as her husband came back.
"Elegant, mátushka; she knew all about it, and she says, 'How did you dare?' and I says, 'We don't dare, your ladyship, and Viérotchka has already refused him.'"
"What? What? You said such nonsense as that, you ass?"[1]
"Marya Alekséyevna—"
"You ass! you villain! you have killed me! you have cut my throat! Take that!"—The husband received a slap. "And take that!" Another slap. "That's the way to teach you, durak!" She seized him by the hair and began to drag him about the room. The lesson continued for some time, for Storeshnikof, after his mother's long lecture and pauses, came running into the room, and found Marya Alekséyevna still in the full heat of instruction.
"You ass! you did not even fasten the door—and what a state strangers find us in! You ought to be ashamed to be such a hog [svinya]!" That was all that Marya Alekséyevna found to say.
"Where is Viéra Pavlovna? I must see Viéra Pavlovna! Immediately! Is it true that she refuses me?"
The circumstances were so embarrassing that Marya Alekséyevna could only motion with her hand. The very same thing happened to Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo, when Marshal Grouchy proved to be stupid like Pavel Konstantinuitch, and La Fayette was bold like Viérotchka; Napoleon was fighting, fighting—doing, accomplishing all the miracles in his art—but it was without avail, and he could only motion with his hand, and say, "I give it all up; let every one do as he pleases, with himself and with me."
"Viéra Pavlovna, do you refuse my hand?"
"Judge for yourself; how can I not refuse it?"
"Viéra Pavlovna, I have cruelly offended you; I am to
- ↑ Osel pronounced As-yól.
