“Ah? Schtoltz tells me that you are engaged in drawing up a scheme of some sort?”
“Yes. I want to live upon my estate, and am making a few preparations for doing so.”
“And you are going abroad?”
“Undoubtedly—as soon as ever Schtoltz is ready to accompany me.”
“Shall you be very glad to go?”
“Yes, very.”
He looked at her. A smile wras hovering on her face, and illuminating her eyes, and gradually spreading over her cheeks. Only her lips remained as pressed together as usual. He lacked the spirit to continue his lies calmly.
“However, I—I am rather a lazy person,” he began. “But, but——”
Suddenly he felt vexed to think that she should have extracted from him a confession of his lethargy. “What is she to me?” he thought. “Am I afraid of her?”
“Lazy?” she exclaimed with a scarcely perceptible touch of archness. “What? A man be lazy? That passes my comprehension.”