"Don't touch her!" I just managed to say.
He burst out laughing.
"She is your lover? Aie, that Natashka, she has devoured our little monk."
Robenok laughed, too, holding his sides, and for a long time they roasted me with their hot obscenity. It was unbearable! But while they were thus occupied, Natalia went away, and I, losing my temper at last, struck Robenok in the chest with my head, knocking him over, and ran away.
For a long time after that I did not go near Millioni Street. But I saw Ardalon once again; I met him on the ferry-boat.
"Where have you been hiding yourself?" he asked joyfully.
When I told him that it was repulsive to me to remember how he had knocked Natalia about and obscenely insulted me, Ardalon laughed good-naturedly.
"Did you take that seriously? We only rubbed it into you for a joke! As for her, why shouldn't she be knocked about, a street-walker? People beat their wives, so they are certainly not going to have more mercy on such as that! Still, it was only a joke, the whole thing. I understand, you know, that the fist is no good for teaching!"
"What have you got to teach her? How are you better than she is?"
He put his hands on my shoulders and, shaking me, said banteringly: