VI
I beg your pardon, Valentina Mihalovna', she said, going towards Madame Sipyagin; I was busy and I lingered.'
Then she bowed to Kallomyetsev, and, moving a little aside, seated herself on a small ottoman near the parrot, who had begun flapping his wings and craning towards her directly he caught sight of her.
'Why are you sitting so far away, Marianna?' observed Madame Sipyagin, following her with her eyes to the ottoman. 'Do you want to be close to your little friend? Only fancy, Semyon Petrovitch,' she turned to Kallomyetsev, ' that parrot's simply in love with dear Marianna.'
'That does not astonish me!'
'And me he can't endure.'
'Well, that is astonishing! You tease him, I suppose?'
'Never; quite the contrary. I give him sugar. But he will take nothing from me.
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