"I will bring it, your Excellency, I will certainly bring it," responded Ivan Andreyitch, darting back into the room, for he had already made his bows and withdrawn. "I will certainly bring it. It is such a pretty one. It is just as though a confectioner had made it of sweet-meats. And it's such a funny little thing—gets entangled in its own coat and falls over. It really is a lapdog! I said to my wife: 'How is it, my love, it keeps tumbling over?' 'It is such a little thing,' she said. As though it were made of sugar, of sugar, your Excellency! Good-bye, your Excellency, very, very glad to make your acquaintance, very glad to make your acquaintance!"
Ivan Andreyitch bowed himself out.
"Hey, sir! Stay, come back," cried the old gentleman, after the retreating Ivan Andreyitch.
The latter turned back for the third time.
"I still can't find the cat, didn't you meet him when you were under the bed?"
"No, I didn't, your Excellency. Very glad to make his acquaintance, though, and I shall look upon it as an honour...."
"He has a cold in his head now, and keeps sneezing and sneezing. He must have a beating."
"Yes, your Excellency, of course; corrective punishment is essential with domestic animals."
"What?"
"I say that corrective punishment is necessary, your Excellency, to enforce obedience in the domestic animals."