Kostya and Katya, and was glad that her Nikodim Alexandritch was
not at home. Seeing that in her opinion all men are fond of "women
like that," Nadyezhda Fyodorovna might have a bad effect on Nikodim
Alexandritch too.

As she talked to her visitor, Marya Konstantinovna kept remembering
that they were to have a picnic that evening, and that Von Koren
had particularly begged her to say nothing about it to the "Japanese
monkeys"--that is, Laevsky and Nadyezhda Fyodorovna; but she
dropped a word about it unawares, crimsoned, and said in confusion:

"I hope you will come too!"

VI

It was agreed to drive about five miles out of town on the road to
the south, to stop near a _duhan_ at the junction of two streams
--the Black River and the Yellow River--and to cook fish soup.
They started out soon after five. Foremost of the party in a
char-a-banc drove Samoylenko and Laevsky; they were followed by
Marya Konstantinovna, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, Katya and Kostya, in a
coach with three horses, carrying with them the crockery and a
basket with provisions. In the next carriage came the police captain,
Kirilin, and the young Atchmianov, the son of the shopkeeper to
whom Nadyezhda Fyodorovna owed three hundred roubles; opposite them,
huddled up on the little seat with his feet tucked under him, sat
Nikodim Alexandritch, a neat little man with hair combed on to his
temples. Last of all came Von Koren and the deacon; at the deacon's
feet stood a basket of fish.

"R-r-right!" Samoylenko shouted at the top of his voice when he met
a cart or a mountaineer riding on a donkey.

"In two years' time, when I shall have the means and the people
ready, I shall set off on an expedition," Von Koren was telling the
deacon. "I shall go by the sea-coast from Vladivostok to the Behring
Straits, and then from the Straits to the mouth of the Yenisei. We
shall make the map, study the fauna and the flora, and make detailed
geological, anthropological, and ethnographical researches. It
depends upon you to go with me or not."

"It's impossible," said the deacon.

"Why?"

"I'm a man with ties and a family."

"Your wife will let you go; we will provide for her. Better still
if you were to persuade her for the public benefit to go into a
nunnery; that would make it possible for you to become a monk, too,
and join the expedition as a priest. I can arrange it for you."

The deacon was silent.

"Do you know your theology well?" asked the zoologist.