‘Quite free.’
‘Ah! that’s all I wanted to know.’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Oh, I wanted to—I wanted you to tell me that.’
‘Our young lady is anxious to learn,’ Punin observed from the sofa.
When I went out into the passage Musa accompanied me, not, of course, from politeness, but with the same malicious intent. I asked her, as I took leave, ‘Can you really love him so much?’
‘Whether I love him, or whether I don’t, that’s my affair,’ she answered. ‘What is to be, will be.’
‘Mind what you’re about; don’t play with fire ... you’ll get burnt.’
‘Better be burnt than frozen. You ... with your good advice! And how can you tell he won’t marry me? How do you know I so particularly want to get married? If I am ruined ... what business is it of yours?’
She slammed the door after me.