Ilya smiled.
"Whose throat did he want to cut?" asked the boy, and came up to the counter. He held his hands behind his back, his head thrown up, and his coarse face was red with excitement.
"His wife," said Ilya.
Gavrik was silent for a moment, then he wrinkled his forehead and said softly and thoughtfully to his master:
"There was a woman near us poisoned her husband last Christmas with arsenic, because he was always drinking."
"It does happen," said Lunev slowly, thinking of Pavel.
"But this man, will he really kill her?"
"Go away now, Gavrik."
The boy turned round and went to the door murmuring: "Marry! O Lord!"
The dusk of twilight filled the streets and lights appeared in the windows opposite.