‘She did, she did!’ repeated Madam Suhantchikov with convulsive intensity: ‘I am not talking idle gossip. And you are friends with men like that!’
‘Excuse me, excuse me, Matrona Semyonovna, I never spoke of Tentelyev as a friend of mine; I was speaking of Pelikanov.’
‘Well, if it’s not Tentelyev, it’s another. Mihnyov, for example.’
‘What did he do then?’ asked Bambaev, already showing signs of alarm.
‘What? Is it possible you don’t know? He exclaimed on the Poznesensky Prospect in the hearing of all the world that all the liberals ought to be in prison; and what’s more, an old schoolfellow came to him, a poor man of course, and said, “Can I come to dinner with you?” And this was his answer. “No, impossible; I have two counts dining with me to-day ... get along with you!”’
‘But that’s slander, upon my word!’ vociferated Bambaev.
‘Slander? ... slander? In the first place, Prince Vahrushkin, who was also dining at your Mihnyov’s——’
‘Prince Vahrushkin,’ Gubaryov interpolated severely, ‘is my cousin; but I don’t allow him to enter my house.... So there is no need to mention him even.’
‘In the second place,’ continued Madame Suhantchikov, with a submissive nod in Gubaryov’s direction, ‘Praskovya [Yakovlovna] told me so herself.’
‘You have hit on a fine authority to quote! Why, she and Sarkizov are the greatest scandal-mongers going.’