[Exit.
First Footman. And what is this new mania they have got? This infection!... So yours also is afraid of it?
Theodore Ivánitch. She fears it worse than fire! Our chief business, nowadays, is fumigating, washing, and sprinkling.
First Footman. I see. That's why there is such a stuffy smell here. (With animation.) I don't know what we're coming to with these infection notions. It's just detestable! They seem to have forgotten the Lord. There's our master's sister, Princess Mosolóva, her daughter was dying, and, will you believe it, neither father nor mother would come near her! So she died without their having taken leave of her. And the daughter cried, and called them to say good-bye—but they didn't go! The doctor had discovered some infection or other! And yet their own maid and a trained nurse were with her, and nothing happened to them; they're still alive!
[Enter VASÍLY LEONÍDITCH and PETRÍSTCHEF from VASÍLY LEONÍDITCH'S room, smoking cigarettes.
Petrístchef. Come along then, only I must take Koko—Cocoanut, with me.
Vasíly Leoníditch. Your Koko is a regular dolt; I can't bear him. A hare-brained fellow, a regular gad-about! Without any kind of occupation, eternally loafing around! Eh, what?
Petrístchef. Well, anyhow, wait a bit, I must say goodbye.
Vasíly Leoníditch. All right. And I will go and look at my dogs in the coachman's room. I've got a dog there that's so savage, the coachman said, he nearly ate him.
Petrístchef. Who ate whom? Did the coachman really eat the dog?