"My dear sir, my dear sir!" cried Ivan Andreyitch, turning cold with terror, "I a.s.sure you I spend my nights at home too, and this is the first time; but, my G.o.d, I see you know me. Who are you, young man? Tell me at once, I beseech you, from disinterested friendship, who are you?"
"Listen, I shall resort to violence...."
"But allow me, allow me, sir, to tell you, allow me to explain all this horrid business."
"I won"t listen to any explanation. I don"t want to know anything about it.
Be silent or...."
"But I cannot...."
A slight skirmish took place under the bed, and Ivan Andreyitch subsided.
"My love, it sounds as though there were cats hissing."
"Cats! What will you imagine next?"
Evidently the lady did not know what to talk to her husband about. She was so upset that she could not pull herself together. Now she started and p.r.i.c.ked up her ears.
"What cats?"
"Cats, my love. The other day I went into my study, and there was the tom-cat in my study, and hissing shoo-shoo-shoo! I said to him: "What is it, p.u.s.s.y?" and he went shoo-shoo-shoo again, as though he were whispering.
I thought, "Merciful heavens! isn"t he hissing as a sign of my death?""
"What nonsense you are talking to-day! You ought to be ashamed, really!"
"Never mind, don"t be cross, my love. I see, you don"t like to think of me dying; I didn"t mean it. But you had better undress and get to bed, my love, and I"ll sit here while you go to bed."
"For goodness" sake, leave off; afterwards...."
"Well, don"t be cross, don"t be cross; but really I think there must be mice here."
"Why, first cats and then mice, I really don"t know what is the matter with you."
"Oh, I am all right ... Khee ... I ... khee! Never mind ...
khee-khee-khee-khee! Oh! Lord have mercy on me ... khee."
"You hear, you are making such an upset that he hears you," whispers the young man.
"But if you knew what is happening to me. My nose is bleeding."
"Let it bleed. Shut up. Wait till he goes away."
"But, young man, put yourself in my place. Why, I don"t know with whom I am lying."
"Would you be any better off if you did? Why, I don"t want to know your name. By the way, what is your name?"
"No; what do you want with my name?... I only want to explain the senseless way in which...."
"Hush ... he is speaking again...."
"Really, my love, there is whispering."
"Oh, no, it"s the cotton wool in your ears has got out of place."
"Oh, by the way, talking of the cotton wool, do you know that upstairs ...
khee-khee ... upstairs ... khee-khee ..." and so on.
"Upstairs!" whispered the young man. "Oh, the devil! I thought that this was the top storey; can it be the second?"
"Young man," whispered Ivan Andreyitch, "what did you say? For goodness"
sake why does it concern you? I thought it was the top storey too. Tell me, for G.o.d"s sake, is there another storey?"
"Really some one is stirring," said the old man, leaving off coughing at last.
"Hush! Do you hear?" whispered the young man, squeezing Ivan Andreyitch"s hands.
"Sir, you are holding my hands by force. Let me go!"
"Hush!"
A slight struggle followed and then there was a silence again.
"So I met a pretty woman ..." began the old man.
"A pretty woman!" interrupted his wife.
"Yes.... I thought I told you before that I met a pretty woman on the stairs, or perhaps I did not mention it? My memory is weak. Yes, St. John"s wort ... khee!"
"What?"
"I must drink St. John"s wort; they say it does good ... khee-khee-khee! It does good!"
"It was you interrupted him," said the young man, grinding his teeth again.
"You said, you met some pretty woman to-day?" his wife went on.
"Eh?"
"Met a pretty woman?"
"Who did?"
"Why, didn"t you?"
"I? When?"
"Oh, yes!..."