LOUKA.
(fiercely). It means—
SERGIUS.
(interrupting her slightingly). Oh, I remember, the ice pudding. A paltry taunt, girl.
(Major Petkoff enters, in his shirtsleeves.)
PETKOFF.
Excuse my shirtsleeves, gentlemen. Raina: somebody has been wearing that coat of mine: I’ll swear it—somebody with bigger shoulders than mine. It’s all burst open at the back. Your mother is mending it. I wish she’d make haste. I shall catch cold. (He looks more attentively at them.) Is anything the matter?
RAINA.
No. (She sits down at the stove with a tranquil air.)
SERGIUS.
Oh, no! (He sits down at the end of the table, as at first.)
BLUNTSCHLI.
(who is already seated). Nothing, nothing.
PETKOFF.
(sitting down on the ottoman in his old place). That’s all right. (He notices Louka.) Anything the matter, Louka?
LOUKA.
No, sir.
PETKOFF.
(genially). That’s all right. (He sneezes.) Go and ask your mistress for my coat, like a good girl, will you? (She turns to obey; but Nicola enters with the coat; and she makes a pretence of having business in the room by taking the little table with the hookah away to the wall near the windows.)