"Looks like it!"
They chatted a while and parted, both very sad and thoughtful.
Another fortnight passed in this same way, when suddenly there came a sharp turning in the course of Ilya's life. One morning, while business was proceeding in a lively manner, the chief suddenly began to look for something in his desk very eagerly. An angry red covered his forehead, and the veins of his neck swelled up.
"Ilya," he shouted, "come and look here on the floor, if you can't find a ten-rouble piece!"
Ilya looked at his master, then glanced quickly over the floor, and said quietly: "No, there's nothing."
"I tell you, look—look properly!" growled his employer, in his harsh bass voice.
"I have looked already."
"Ah, ah! Wait a bit, you impudent rascal!" And as soon as the customers were gone he called Ilya, seized the boy's ear in his strong fat fingers and twisted it, snarling in his harsh voice, "When you're told to look, look! When you're told to look, look!"
Ilya pressed with both hands against his master's body, released his ear from the fingers, and cried loudly and angrily, his whole frame quivering with excitement:
"Why do you bully me? Michael stole the money. Yes, he did. It's in his left waistcoat pocket."