'I'll let you have some. But how is it you haven't?'
Nezhdanov made no answer. Markelov, too, was silent, and only blew the smoke out of his nostrils.
'What a beast that Kallomyetsev is, though!' he observed suddenly. 'At dinner I was thinking of getting up, going up to that worthy, and pounding that impudent face of his to atoms, for an example to others. But no! There's business of more importance just now than slaying kammerjunkers. Now's not the time to lose one's temper with fools for saying stupid things; it's time to prevent them doing stupid things.'
Nezhdanov nodded his head in confirmation, while Markelov again puffed away at his cigarette.
'Here, among all the servants, there's one sensible fellow,' he began again; 'not your servant Ivan . . . he's a dull fish, but another one . . . his name's Kirill, he waits at the sideboard'─(this Kirill had the character of being a sad drunkard)─'you notice him. A drunken brute . . . but we can't afford to be squeamish, you know. And what have you to say of my sister?' he added suddenly, raising his head and fixing his yellow eyes on Nezhdanov. 'She's even more of a humbug than my
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