"You are a shameless hussy, my girl!"
To which she answered swiftly, in the words of a ribald song:
"If a maiden is too modest,
She 'll never be a woman worth having."
It was the first time I had ever seen such a girl. She disgusted and frightened me with her coarse playfulness, and seeing that her antics were not agreeable to me, she became more and more spiteful toward me.
Once when Pavl and I were in the cellar helping her to steam out the casks of kvass and cucumbers she suggested:
"Would you like me to teach you how to kiss, boys?"
"I know how to kiss better than you do," Pavl answered, and I told her to go and kiss her future husband. I did not say it very politely, either.
She was angry.
"Oh, you coarse creature! A young lady makes herself agreeable to him and he turns up his nose. Well, I never! What a ninny!"
And she added, shaking a threatening finger at me: "You just wait. I will remember that of you!" But Pavl said to her, taking my part: