“Oh! you were sorry—you pitied me, as true friend pities friend!”
“Oh, well, I pitied you, then!” Velchaninoff was growing angrier every moment. However, he informed Pavel Pavlovitch shortly as to how he had received the bracelet, and how Nadia had almost forced it upon him.
“You must understand,” he added, “that otherwise I should never have agreed to accept the commission; there are quite enough disagreeables already.”
“You liked the job, and accepted it with pleasure,” giggled Pavel Pavlovitch.
“That is foolish on your part; but I suppose you must be forgiven. You must have seen from that boy's behaviour that I play no part in this matter. Others are the principal actors, not I!”
“At all events the job had attractions for you.” Pavel Pavlovitch sat down and poured out a glass of wine.
“You think I shall knuckle under to that young gentleman? Pooh! I shall drive him out to-morrow, sir, like dust. I'll smoke this little gentleman out of his nursery, sir; you see if I don't.” He drank his wine off at a gulp, and poured out some more. He seemed to grow freer as the moments went by; he talked glibly now.
“Ha-ha! Sachinka and Nadienka![2] darling little children. Ha-ha-ha!” He was beside himself with fury.
At this moment, a terrific crash of thunder startled the silence, and was followed by flashes of lightning and sheets of heavy rain. Pavel Pavlovitch rose and shut the window.
“The fellow asked you if you were afraid of the thunder; do you remember? Ha-ha-ha! Velchaninoff afraid of thunder! And all that about ‘fifty years old’ wasn't bad, eh? Ha-ha-ha!” Pavel Pavlovitch was in a spiteful mood.