"But you are crazy now...."
"There, I knew you would say that ... when I talked of being crazy. Laugh away, laugh away, young man. I did the same in my day; I, too, went astray! Ah, I shall have inflammation of the brain!"
"What is it, my love? I thought I heard some one sneeze," the old man chanted. "Was that you sneezed, my love?"
"Oh, goodness!" said his wife.
"Tch!" sounded from under the bed.
"They must be making a noise upstairs," said his wife, alarmed, for there certainly was a noise under the bed.
"Yes, upstairs!" said the husband. "Upstairs, I told you just now, I met a ... khee-khee ... that I met a young swell with moustaches—oh, dear, my spine!—a young swell with moustaches."
"With moustaches! My goodness, that must have been you," whispered Ivan Andreyitch.
"Merciful heavens, what a man! Why, I am here, lying here with you! How could he have met me? But don't take hold of my face."
"My goodness, I shall faint in a minute."