“You have two houses, land, peasants, silver and glass, and talk of wandering about from one shelter to another like a beggar, like Markushka, the vagrant.”
“Markushka again! I must certainly make his acquaintance.”
“No, don’t do that and add to your Grandmother’s anxieties. If you see him, make your escape.”
“That’s of no consequence, Grandmother. It looks as if he were an interesting individual, doesn’t it, Tiet Nikonich?”
“He is a riddle to everybody,” Tiet Nikonich answered with a smile. “He must have gone astray very early in life, but he has apparently good brains and considerable knowledge, and might have been a useful member of society.”
Paulina Karpovna turned her head away, and dismissed Mark with the criticism, “No manners.”
“Brains! You bought his brains for three hundred roubles. Has he repaid them?” asked Tatiana Markovna.
“I did not remind him of his debt. But to me he is, for the matter of that, almost polite.”
“That is to say he does not strike you, or shoot in your direction. Just imagine, Boris, that he nearly shot Niel Andreevich.”
“His dogs tore my train,” complained Paulina Karpovna.
“Did he never visit you unceremoniously at dinner again?” Tatiana Markovna asked Tiet Nikonich.
“No, you don’t like me to receive him, so I refuse him admission. He once came to me at night,” he went on, addressing Raisky. “He had been out hunting, and had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours. I gave him food, and we passed the time very pleasantly.”
“Pleasantly!” exclaimed Tatiana Markovna. “How can you say such things? If he came to me at that hour, I would settle him. No, Boris Pavlovich, live like other decent people. Stay with us, have dinner with us, go out with us, keep suspicious people at a distance, see how I administer your estate, and find fault if I do anything wrong.”
“That is so monotonous, Grandmother. Let us rather live each one after his own ideas and inclinations.”
“No, Grandmother, it is you who are an exceptional woman. Why should we bother about one another.”
“Why don’t you want to please your Grandson? You are a despot, Grandmother.”
“A despot! Boris Pavlovich, I have waited anxiously for you, I have hardly slept, have tried to have everything as you liked it.”