"Well, have you brought it?" he asked.
"Brought it--yes, I have," she answered in an uncertain voice. "But, Naum Ivanitch----"
"Give it me, since you have brought it," he interrupted her, and held out his hand.
She took a parcel from under her shawl. Naum took it at once and thrust it in his bosom.
"Naum Ivanitch," Avdotya said slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on him, "oh, Naum Ivanitch, you will bring my soul to ruin."
It was at that instant that the servant came up to them.
And so Akim was sitting on the bench discontentedly stroking his beard. Avdotya kept coming into the room and going out again. He simply followed her with his eyes. At last she came into the room and after taking a jerkin from the lobby was just crossing the threshold, when he could not restrain himself and said, as though speaking to himself:
"I wonder," he began, "why it is women are always in a fuss? It's no good expecting them to sit still. That's not in their line. But running out morning or evening, that's what they like. Yes."
Avdotya listened to her husband's words without changing her position; only at the word "evening," she moved her head slightly and seemed to ponder.
"Once you begin talking, Semyonitch," she commented at last with vexation, "there is no stopping you."