"I couldn't come."
"You were drunk?"
"No, I was watching your son and his mother-in-law," said Sereja, unmoved.
"That's new sort of work for you," said Vassili, with a constrained smile. "After all, they are not children!"
"They are worse; one is a fool, and the other is mad."
"Is it Malva who is the mad one?" asked Vassili.
And his eyes shone with sad anger.
"That's it!"
"Since when?"
"She has always been mad. She has, brother Vassili, a soul which does not fit her body. Can you understand that?"