“Exceedingly handsome: tall, well-built, and with red cheeks....”
“Really? And I was under the impression that he was fair. Well, and how did he seem to you? Sad, thoughtful?”
“Nothing of the kind! I have never in my life seen such a frolicsome person. He wanted to join in the game with us.”
“Join in the game with you? Impossible!”
“Not all impossible. And what else do you think he wanted to do? To kiss us all round!”
“With your permission, Nastia, you are talking nonsense.”
“With your permission, I am not talking nonsense. I had the greatest trouble in the world to get away from him, He spent the whole day along with us.”
“But they say that he is in love, and hasn’t eyes for anybody.”
“I don’t know anything about that, but I know that he looked at me a good deal, and so he did at Tania, the bailiff’s daughter, and at Pasha[3] Kolbinsky also. But it cannot be said that he offended anybody—he is so very agreeable.”
“That is extraordinary! And what do they say about him in the house?”