"Ha, ha, ha!" he cried.
"I feel easy, then," continued Bazarov. "In fact, never do I mind with whom I sit at table."
Vasili Ivanitch's face brightened at once.
"I felt sure of that in advance," he said. "Yes, I knew that you, a young man, are as superior to prejudice as I am at sixty-two" (Vasili had none the less shrunk from confessing that he had wished for the thanksgiving ceremony as much as his wife had, since his piety was fully equal to hers). "In any case Father Alexis would like to make your acquaintance; while you, for your part, will very likely take to him, seeing that he not only plays cards, but also (though this is quite between ourselves) smokes a pipe!"
"Indeed? After dinner, then, we will have a game, and I will despoil him utterly."
"Ha, ha, ha! We shall see, we shall see."
"Then at times you hark back to old days?" Bazarov asked with a tinge of surprise.
Vasili Ivanitch's bronzed cheeks took on a faint flush.
"For shame, Evgenii!" he muttered. "Remember that the past is the past. Nevertheless, even in this gentleman's presence I am ready to confess that in my youth I had my addictions, and that, since, I have paid for them. But how hot the weather is! Let me seat myself beside you; though I hope that, in doing so, I shall not interrupt your conversation?"
"By no means," replied Arkady with alacrity.