e it by a
surly expression and an assumed gruffness; and he liked his assistants
and his soldiers to call him "Your Excellency," although he was
only a civil councillor.

"Answer one question for me, Alexandr Daviditch," Laevsky began,
when both he and Samoylenko were in the water up to their shoulders.
"Suppose you had loved a woman and had been living with her for two
or three years, and then left off caring for her, as one does, and
began to feel that you had nothing in common with her. How would
you behave in that case?"

"It's very simple. 'You go where you please, madam'--and that
would be the end of it."

"It's easy to say that! But if she has nowhere to go? A woman with
no friends or relations, without a farthing, who can't work . . ."

"Well? Five hundred roubles down or an allowance of twenty-five
roubles a month--and nothing more. It's very simple."

"Even supposing you have five hundred roubles and can pay twenty-five
roubles a month, the woman I am speaking of is an educated woman
and proud. Could you really bring yourself to offer her money? And
how would you do it?"

Samoylenko was going to answer, but at that moment a big wave covered
them both, then broke on the beach and rolled back noisily over the
shingle. The friends got out and began dressing.

"Of course, it is difficult to live with a woman if you don't love
her," said Samoylenko, shaking the sand out of his boots. "But one
must look at the thing humanely, Vanya. If it were my case, I should
never show a sign that I did not love her, and I should go on living
with her till I died."

He was at once ashamed of his own words; he pulled himself up and
said:

"But for aught I care, there might be no females at all. Let them
all go to the devil!"

The friends dressed and went into the pavilion. There Samoylenko
was quite at home, and even had a special cup and saucer. Every
morning they brought him on a tray a cup of coffee, a tall cut glass
of iced water, and a tiny glass of brandy. He would first drink the
brandy, then the hot coffee, then the iced water, and this must
have been very nice, for after drinking it his eyes looked moist
with pleasure, he would stroke his whiskers with both hands, and
say, looking at the sea:

"A wonderfully magnificent view!"

After a long night spent in cheerless, unprofitable thoughts which
prevented him from sleeping, and seemed to intensify the darkness
and sultriness of the night, Laevsky felt list