Ostrodumov turned aside and spat.
'How is it he's for ever gadding about now ? There's no finding him.'
Mashurina took out another cigarette.
'He's bored,' she pronounced, carefully lighting it.
'Bored!' repeated Ostrodumov reproachfully. ' What self-indulgence! One would think we'd no work for him to do. Here are we praying we may get through all the work decently somehow, and he's bored!'
'Any letter come from Moscow?' inquired Mashurina, after a brief pause.
'Yes . . . the day before yesterday.'
'Have you read it?'
Ostrodumov merely nodded.
'Well . . . what's the news?'
'Oh some one will have to go there soon.'
Mashurina took the cigarette out of her mouth.
'Why so? Everything's all right there, I'm told.'
'Yes, it's all right. Only one man's shown he's not to be depended on. So that . . . we must shift him, or else get rid of him altogether. Oh, and there are other things. They ask for you, too.'
In the letter?'
'Yes.'
5
