“No, it is I that will soon have to clear out,” said Maria Ivanovna with sudden irritation at which she herself was vexed. Hastily removing her saucepan of jam, she hurried into the house, without looking back. The terrier jumped up, and with ears erect watched her go. Then it rubbed its nose with its front paw, gave another questioning glance at the house and ran off into the garden.
“Have you got any cigarettes?” asked Sanine, delighted at his mother’s departure.
Novikoff with a lazy movement of his large body produced a cigarette- case.
“You ought not to tease her so,” said he, in a voice of gentle reproof. “She’s an old lady.”
“How have I teased her?”
“Well, you see—”
“What do you mean by ‘well, you see?’ It is she who is always after me. I have never asked anything of anybody, and therefore people ought to leave me alone.”
Both remained silent.
“Well, how goes it, doctor?” asked Sanine, as he watched the tobacco- smoke rising in fantastic curves above his head.
Novikoff, who was thinking of something else, did not answer at once.