"Well, brother Jashka, have you understood?"
"Damn it all! there's truth in what you say."
Jakoff understood one thing—that to beat his wife unwisely might be prejudicial to himself.
He kept silence, answering his friends' jokes with shamefaced smiles.
"And then again, look what a wife can be to one," philosophises the kringel-seller, Mokei Anissimoff. "One's wife is a friend, if you look at the matter in the right light. She is, as it were, chained to one for life, like a fellow-convict, and one must try and walk in step with her. If one gets out of step, the chain galls."
"Stop!" says Jakoff. "You beat your wife also, don't you?"
"I'm not saying I don't, because I do. How can I help it? I can't beat the wall with my fists when I feel I must beat something!"
"That's just how I feel," says Jakoff.
"What an existence is ours, brothers! So narrow and stifling, one can never have a real fling."
"One has even to beat one's wife with caution," humorously condoles someone.