"Or she'll poison me," whispered Peredonov in fear.
"You leave it all to me," Routilov prevailed upon him, "I'll see that you are well protected——"
"I shan't marry without a dot," said Peredonov sullenly.
Routilov was not astonished by the new turn in the thoughts of his surly companion. He replied with the same warmth:
"You're an odd fellow. Of course, my sisters have a dot. Are you satisfied? I'll run along now and arrange everything. Only keep your mouth shut, not a breath, do you hear, not to anyone!"
He shook Peredonov's hand, and made off in great haste. Peredonov looked silently after him. A picture rose up in his mind of the Routilov girls, always cheerful and laughing. An immodest thought squeezed a degrading likeness of a smile to his lips—it appeared for an instant and vanished. A confused restlessness stirred within him.
"What about the Princess?" he reflected. "The others have the cash without her power; but if I marry Varvara I'll fall into an inspector's job, and later perhaps they'll make me a Head-Master."
He looked after the bustling, scampering Routilov and thought maliciously:
"Let him run!"
And this thought gave him a lingering, vague pleasure. Then he began to feel sad because he was alone; he pulled his hat down over his forehead, knitted his bright eyebrows, and quickly turned towards his home across the unpaved, deserted streets, overgrown with pearl grass and white flowers, and water-cress and grass that had been stamped down into the mud.