"It's heavy, Vasili Nikolaich."
"What is it?" asked Eugene.
"Why, a cow has calved in the meadow. Well, all right, I'll order them to harness a horse at once. Tell Nicholas Lysukh to get out the dray cart."
The herdsman went out.
"Do you know," began Eugene, flushing and conscious that he was doing so, "do you know, Vasili Nikolaich, while I was a bachelor I went off the track a bit. . . . You may have heard . . ."
Vasili Nikolaich with smiling eyes and evidently sorry for his master, said: "Is it about Stepanida?"
"Why, yes. Look here. Please, please do not engage her to help in the house. You understand, it is very awkward for me . . ."
"Yes, it must have been Vanya, the clerk, who arranged it."
"Yes, please. . . . Well, and hadn't the rest of the phosphates better be strewn?" said Eugene, to hide his confusion.
"Yes, I am just going to see to it."