“No, Serezha. He's a poor beggar! But what a soul he has—what a heart! You are wrong in speaking so disdainfully of him … and you bully him. Brother, you must learn to discriminate between people. Let's have another glass?”
Pshekhotsky returned for dinner. When he saw me sitting at table and drinking, he frowned, and after turning about round our table for a time he seemed to think it best to retire to his own room. He refused to have any dinner, pleading a bad headache, but he expressed no objection when the Count advised him to go to bed and have his dinner there.
During the second course, Urbenin came in. I hardly recognized him. His broad red face beamed all over with pleasure. A happy smile seemed to be playing on his sticking-out ears and on the thick fingers with which he was arranging his smart new necktie all the time.
“One of the cows is ill, your Excellency,” he reported. “I sent for the vet., but it appears he had gone away somewhere. Wouldn't it be a good thing to send to town for the veterinary surgeon? If I send to him he will not listen and will not come, but if you write to him it will be quite a different matter. Perhaps it is a mere trifle, but it may be something serious.”
“All right, I will write …” the Count grumbled.
“I congratulate you, Pëtr Egorych,” I said, rising and stretching out my hand to the bailiff.
“On what occasion?” he murmured.
“Why, you are about to get married!”
“Yes, yes, just fancy! He's going to get married!” the Count began, winking at blushing Urbenin. “What do you think of him? Ha, ha, ha! He was silent, never said a word, and then suddenly—this bombshell. And do you know whom he is going to marry? We guessed it that evening! Pëtr Egorych, we settled then that in your scamp of a heart something improper was going on. When he looked at you and Olenka he said: ‘That fellow's bitten!’ Ha, ha! Sit down and have dinner with us, Pëtr Egorych!”
Urbenin sat down carefully and respectfully and made a sign with his eyes to Il'ya to bring him a plate of soup. I poured him out a glass of vodka.