“What! if after having got drunk here to-day, you asked to come back to-morrow to get drunk again?” said Gregory, who in his challenge to Ivan did not forget his own interests,—“if you asked that?”
“I should come back again,” said Ivan.
“To-morrow?” said Gregory.
“To-morrow, the day after, every day if I liked....”
“The fact is, Ivan is our young lady’s favourite,” said another of the count’s slaves who was present, profiting by his comrade Ivan’s liberality.
“It is all the same,” said Gregory; “for supposing such permission were given you, money would soon run short.”
“Never!” said Ivan, swallowing another glass of brandy, “never will Ivan want for money as long as there is a kopeck in my lady’s purse.”
“I did not find her so liberal,” said Gregory bitterly.
“Oh, you forget, my friend; you know well she does not reckon with her friends: remember the strokes of the knout.”
“I have no wish to speak about that,” said Gregory. “I know that she is generous with blows, but her money is another thing. I have never seen the colour of that.”