“How have I sucked your life blood?” asked the victim, bending his head as low as circumstances permitted.
“Fool!—allegorically, of course—can't you understand? Now, then, comb it yourself. Here, Grisha, dress him, quick!”
Our heroine threw herself into an arm-chair, and critically watched the ceremony of adorning her husband. Meanwhile the latter had a little opportunity to get his breath once more and compose his feelings generally; so that when matters arrived at the point where the tie is tied, he had even developed so much audacity as to express opinions of his own as to how the bow should be manufactured.
At last, having put his dress-coat on, the lord of the manor was his brave self again, and gazed at his highly ornate person in the glass with great satisfaction and complacency.
“Where are you going to take me to?” he now asked, smiling at his reflected self.
Maria Alexandrovna could not believe her ears.
“What—what? How dare you ask me where I am taking you to, sir!”
“But—mammy—I must know, you know——”
“Hold your tongue! You let me hear you call me mammy again, especially where we are going to now! you sha'n't have any tea for a month!”
The frightened consort held his peace.