laugh, she tore the lace edge of her handkerchief.
'May I come in?' asked Ratmirov from the other room.
'Yes . . . yes.'
The door opened, and in the doorway appeared the general. He scowled on seeing Litvinov; however, he bowed to them, that is to say, he bent the upper portion of his person.
'I did not know you had a visitor,' he said: 'je vous demande pardon de mon indiscrétion. So you still find Baden entertaining, M'sieu—Litvinov?'
Ratmirov always uttered Litvinov's surname with hesitation, every time, as though he had forgotten it, and could not at once recall it. . . . In this way, as well as by the lofty flourish of his hat in saluting him, he meant to insult his pride.
'I am not bored here, m'sieu le général!
'Really? Well, I find Baden fearfully boring. We are soon going away, are we not, Irina Pavlovna? Assez de Bade comme çа By the way, I 've won you five hundred francs today.'
Irina stretched out her hand coquettishly.
'Where are they? Please let me have them for pin-money.'
255
