“It will be difficult to find a wife for you.”
“We are well matched. I was still an assessor when you married the late Ivan Egorovich. And that must be—”
“How hot it is! Stifling! Let us go into the garden. Please give me my mantilla, Michel,” she said turning to the cadet who had come with her.
At this moment Vera appeared, and the company rose and crowded round her, so that the conversation took another turn. Raisky was bored by the guests, and by the exhibition he had just witnessed. He would have left the room, but that Vera’s presence provided a strong incentive to remain. Vera looked quickly round at the guests, said a few words here and there, shook hands with the young girls, smiled at the ladies, and sat down on a chair by the stove. The young officials smoothed their coats, Niel Andreevich kissed her hand with evident pleasure, and the girls fixed their eyes on her. Meanwhile Marfinka was busily employed in pouring out time, handing dishes and particularly in entertaining her friends.
“Vera Vassilievna, my dear, do take my part,” cried Niel Andreevich.
“Is any one offending you?”
“Indeed there is. There is Dalila, no, Pelageia Karpovna—”
“Impertinent creature,” said that lady aloud, as she rose and went quickly towards the door.
Tatiana Markovna also rose. “Where are you going, Paulina Karpovna?” she cried. “Marfinka, do not let her go.”
“No, no, Tatiana Markovna,” came Paulina Karpovna’s voice from the hall, “I am always grateful to you, but I do not wish to meet such a loon. If my husband were alive, no man would dare....”