“The carriage is there, your Excellency! Now you can drive home, if you wish!”
“Where has that carriage come from?” I asked.
“I sent for it.…”
A minute later I was sitting with the Count in the carriage, listening to the peals of thunder and feeling very angry.
“We've been nicely turned out of the little house by that Pëtr Egorych, the devil take him!” I grumbled, getting really angry. “So he's prevented us from examining Olenka properly! I would not have eaten her!… The old fool! The whole time he was bursting with jealousy.… He's in love with that girl.…”
“Yes, yes, yes.… Would you believe it, I noticed that, too! He would not let us go into the house from jealousy. And he sent for the carriage only from jealousy.… Ha, ha, ha!”
“The later love comes the more it burns.… Besides, brother, it's difficult not to fall in love with this girl in red, if one sees her every day as we saw her to-day! She's devilish pretty! But she's not for his net.… He ought to understand it and not be jealous of others so egoistically.… Why can't he love and not stand in the way of others, all the more as he must know she's not destined for him?… What an old blockhead!”
“Do you remember how enraged he was when Kuz'ma mentioned her name at tea-time?” the Count sniggered. “I thought he was going to thrash us all.… A man does not defend the good fame of a woman so hotly if he's indifferent to her.…”
“Some men will, brother.… But this is not the question.… What's important is this.… If he can command us in the way he has done to-day, what does he do with the small people, with those who are at his disposal? Doubtless, the stewards, the butlers, the huntsmen and the rest of the small fry are prevented by him from even approaching her! Love and jealousy make a man unjust, heartless, misanthropical.… I don't mind betting that for the sake of this Olenka he has worried more than one of the people under his control. It will, therefore, be wise on your part if you put less trust in his complaints of the people in your service and his demands for the dismissal of this or that one. In general, to limit his power for a time.… Love will pass—well, and then there will be nothing to fear. He's a kind and honest fellow.…”
“And what do you think of her papa?” the Count asked, laughing.