"Of course, I shall live another hundred and fifty years."
The cat sneezed under the bed. Varvara said with a smile:
"There, even the cat's sneezing! That shows it's true."
But Peredonov suddenly frowned. The cat now aroused dread in him and its sneezing seemed to him a sign of ominous cunning.
"He'll sneeze something that's not wanted," he thought, and got under the bed and began to drive the cat out. The cat mewed savagely, pressed against the wall, and suddenly with a loud, piercing mew, jumped between Peredonov's hands and ran out of the room.
"A Dutch devil," Peredonov abused the animal savagely.
"He's certainly a devil," affirmed Varvara. "He's become altogether wild. He won't let himself be stroked, as if the devil had got into him."
The Prepolovenskys sent for the bride's-men early in the morning. At ten o'clock all had gathered at Peredonov's. Grushina also came, and Sofya with her husband. They were handed vodka and the usual zakouska.
Peredonov ate little and thought dejectedly as to how he could distinguish himself from Volodin.
"He's curled like a sheep," he thought maliciously, and suddenly imagined that he too might comb his hair in a special way. He rose from the table and said: