"All the same—"
They talked in such an amicably serious vein that the Tatar woman left off teasing them, and coming into the room, took her frock down from the wall in silence, and disappeared.
"She is young," said Osip.
Ardalon glanced at him and without annoyance replied:
"Ephimushka is wrong-headed. He knows nothing, except about women. But the Tatar woman is joyous; she maddens us all."
"Take care; you won't be able to escape from her," Osip warned him, and having eaten the walnut, took his leave.
On the way back I asked Osip:
"Why did you go to him?"
"Just to look at him. He is a man I have known a long time. I have seen ma-a-ny such cases. A man leads a decent life, and suddenly he behaves as if he had just escaped from prison." He repeated what he had said before, "One should be on one's guard against vodka."
But after a minute he added: