“What a man you are, Ivan, to keep a girl faithful to you in all those months. Were you not surprised at finding Grusha unmarried?”
Ivan scratched his head meditatively.
“I was surprised,” he said finally.
“And grateful?” asked Anna Evauovna.
“And grateful,” repeated Ivan, slowly.
“What would you have done if you had found her married?”
“Heaven bless me! If she had not waited, I could have found another.”
Anna Evauovna nodded.
“They grow thickly, these women, but now you can settle down quietly after your wanderings, Ivan.”
Ivan turned his cap round on his hand, and shook his head.