第52章

"Ah! where, where? tell me, tell me this,"Fimishka repeated.

"Nowhere in all the world, nowhere, Love bringeth grief and black despair,"they sang together,"And that, love's gift is everywhere,"Fomisha sang out alone.

"Bravo!" Paklin exclaimed."We have had the first verse, now please sing us the second.""With the greatest of pleasure," Fomishka said, "but what about the trill, Snandulia Samsonovna? After my verse there must be a trill.""Very well, I will play your trill," Snandulia replied.Fomishka began again-"Has ever lover loved true And kept his heart from grief and rue?

He loveth but to weep anew"

and then Fimishka-

"Yea--hearts that love at last are riven As ships that hopelessly have striven For life.To what end were they given?""To what end were they given?"

Fomishka warbled out and waited for Snandulia to play the trill.

"To what end were they given?"

he repeated, and then they struck up together-"Then take, 0h God, the heart away, Away, away, take hearts away, Away, away, away today.""Bravo! Bravo!" the company exclaimed, all with exception of Markelov.

"I wonder they don't feel like clowns?" Nejdanov thought.

"Perhaps they do, who knows? They no doubt think there is no harm in it and may be even amusing to some people.If one looks at it in that light, they are quite right! A thousand times right!"Under the influence of these reflections he began paying compliments to the host and hostess, which they acknowledged with a courtesy, performed while sitting in their chairs.At this moment Pufka the dwarf and Nurse Vassilievna made their appearance from the adjoining room (a bedroom or perhaps the maids' room) from whence a great bustle and whispering had been going on for some time.Pufka began squealing and making hideous grimaces, while the nurse first quietened her, then egged her on.

Solomin's habitual smile became even broader, while Markelov, who had been for some time showing signs of impatience, suddenly turned to Fomishka:

"I did not expect that you," he began in his severe manner, "with your enlightened mind--I've heard that you are a follower of Voltaire--could be amused with what ought to be an object for compassion--with deformity!" Here he remembered Paklin's sister and could have bitten his tongue off.

Fomishka went red in the face and muttered: "You see it is not my fault...she herself--"Pufka simply flew at Markelov.

"How dare you insult our masters?" she screamed out in her lisping voice."What is it to you that they took me in, brought me up, and gave me meat and drink? Can't you bear to see another's good fortune, eh? Who asked you to come here? You fusty, musty, black-faced villain with a moustache like a beetle's!" Here Pufka indicated with her thick short fingers what his moustache was like; while Nurse Vassilievna's toothless mouth was convulsed with laughter, re-echoed in the adjoining room.