"Yes—a smell of lamp-oil mingled with trefoil," agreed Bazarov with a yawn. "But what flies they contain as well!"
There was a pause. Then Arkady resumed:
"Were you strictly kept when you were a boy?"
"You have seen for yourself what my parents are like. Surely they do not seem very severe folk."
"And do you love them very much?"
"I do."
"Certainly they seem to love you."
Bazarov was silent. Presently, however, clasping his hands behind his head, he asked:
"Do you know what is in my mind?"
"No. What?"