"Yevpraksia, why do you talk nonsense?"
"I? Oh, I don't care. You stay here and you'll see. And I—I don't care. I'll give up my position, and go back to father. It's dull here, anyway, you were right about it."
"It is silly for you to suppose that I am going to stay here. But you're right about one thing, Golovliovo certainly is a dull place. And the longer you stay here the duller you feel."
Yevpraksia turned pensive, then yawned and said:
"When I stayed with father I was very, very slim. Now, you see how stout I am, like an oven. So dullness does one good, after all."
"You won't stand it long, anyway. Remember what I say—you won't."
With this the conversation ended.
Luckily Porfiry Vladimirych did not hear it, otherwise he would have obtained a new and fruitful theme for his endless sermonizing.
Porfiry Vladimirych tortured Anninka for two whole days. He kept on saying, "Wait, don't be in a hurry! Quietly, easily. Say your prayers and receive your benediction," and so on. He tired her to death. Finally, on the fifth day, he was ready to go to town with her, though he found another way of tormenting his dear niece.
She was in her fur coat waiting for him in the vestibule, and he, as if to spite her, lingered a whole hour, dressing and washing and clapping his thighs and crossing himself, and walking back and forth, and sitting down, and giving orders. "Here—, or see to it—you know what I mean. See that nothing happens—you know."