"You know my Ardalyon Borisitch has strange whims. He's always thinking of different tricks."
"Why did you do it?" asked Routilov with a loud laugh.
"Why should they have eyes?" said Peredonov morosely. "They don't need to see!"
Everyone roared with laughter, but Peredonov remained morose and silent. It seemed to him that the blinded figures were making wry faces, mocking at him and winking with the gaping little holes in their eyes.
"Perhaps," thought Peredonov, "they've managed to learn to see with their noses."
He had bad luck, as he nearly always did, and it seemed to him that the faces of the kings, queens and knaves expressed spite and mockery; the queen of spades even gritted her teeth, evidently enraged by his blinding her. Finally, after a heavy loss, Peredonov seized the pack of cards and in his rage began to tear them to shreds. The guests roared with laughter. Varvara said with a smile:
"He's always like that—whenever he takes a drop he always does strange things."
"You mean when he's drunk," said Prepolovenskaya spitefully. "Do you hear, Ardalyon Borisitch, what your cousin thinks of you?"
Varvara flushed and said angrily:
"Why do you twist my words?"