"I'll show her up yet," growled Peredonov morosely.
"That's an idée fixe of Ardalyon Borisitch," said the Head-Master's wife with a dry laugh.
[1] Crowns are held over the bride and bridegroom at Russian weddings in church.
[CHAPTER XXIV]
The Peredonov's cat acted wildly, snarled and refused to come when called—it had become quite incorrigible. The animal alarmed Peredonov. He sometimes pronounced exorcisms over it.
"I wonder whether it will help," he thought. "There's strong electricity in a cat's fur. That's where the trouble is."
Once the idea came into his mind to have the cat shorn. No sooner thought of than done. Varvara was not at home. She had gone to Grushina's, after having put a bottle of cherry brandy into her pocket. There was no one to hinder her. Peredonov tied the cat on a cord—he had made a collar out of a pocket handkerchief—and led the animal to the hairdresser. The cat mewed wildly, and struggled. Sometimes it threw itself in desperation at Peredonov—but Peredonov kept it at a distance with his stick. A crowd of small boys ran behind him, hooting and laughing. Passers-by paused to look. People looked out of their windows to see what the noise was about. Peredonov morosely dragged the cat along on the cord without the least embarrassment.
He succeeded in getting the cat to the hairdresser and said:
"Shave the cat, barber, the closer the better."