"The Princess! Why she sold rotten apples in the market and managed to get hold of a Prince."
Routilov burst out laughing and shouted:
"Do Princes walk about markets?"
"Oh, she knew how to entice him in," said Peredonov.
"You're making it up, Ardalyon Borisitch, it's a cock-and-bull story," argued Routilov. "The Princess is a born lady."
Peredonov looked at him malignantly and thought:
"He's defending her. That means he's siding with the Princess. It's clear that she's bewitched him although she lives at a distance."
And the nedotikomka wriggled about him, laughed noiselessly and shook all over with laughter. It reminded Peredonov of various dreadful circumstances. He looked around timidly and whispered:
"In every town there's a sergeant of the gendarmes in the secret service. He wears civilian clothes, sometimes he's in the civil service, sometimes he's a tradesman, or he does something else, but at night when everyone is asleep he puts on his blue uniform and suddenly becomes a sergeant of the gendarmes."
"But why the uniform?" inquired Volodin reasonably.