“Well, then. For my part I think it would be better to give you a good hiding. But there—it’s her business. Well? are you agreeable?”
Kapiton grinned.
“Matrimony is an excellent thing for any one, Gavrila Andreitch; and, as far as I am concerned, I shall be quite agreeable.”
“Very well, then,” replied Gavrila, while he reflected to himself: “there’s no denying the man expresses himself very properly. Only there’s one thing,” he pursued aloud: “the wife our lady’s picked out for you is an unlucky choice.”
“Why, who is she, permit me to inquire?”
“Tatiana.”
“Tatiana?”
And Kapiton opened his eyes, and moved a little away from the wall.
“Well, what are you in such a taking for?… Isn’t she to your taste, hey?”
“Not to my taste, do you say, Gavrila Andreitch! She’s right enough, a hard-working steady girl…. But you know very well yourself, Gavrila Andreitch, why that fellow, that wild man of the woods, that monster of the steppes, he’s after her, you know….”