he squat
little house, while Pufka's voice was heard from within:

"You fools!" she cried. "You fools!"

Paklin laughed aloud, but no one responded. Markelov looked at each
in turn, as though he expected to hear some expression of indignation.
Solomin alone smiled his habitual smile.

XX

"WELL," Paklin was the first to begin, "we have been to the eighteenth
century, now let us fly to the twentieth! Golushkin is such a go-ahead
man that one can hardly count him as belonging to the nineteenth."

"Why, do you know him?"

"What a question! Did you know my poll-parrots?"

"No, but you introduced us."

"Well, then, introduce me. I don't suppose you have any secrets to
talk over, and Golushkin is a hospitable man. You will see; he will be
delighted to see a new face. We are not very formal here in S."

"Yes," Markelov muttered, "I have certainly noticed an absence of
formality about the people here."

Paklin shook his head.

"I suppose that was a hit for me... I can't help it. I deserve it, no
doubt. But may I suggest, my new friend, that you throw off those sad,
oppressive thoughts, no doubt due to your bilious temperament... and
chiefly--"

"And you sir, my new friend," Markelov interrupted him angrily, "allow
me to tell you, by way of a warning, that I have never in my life been
given to joking, least of all today! And what do you know about my
temperament, I should like to know? It strikes me that it is not so very
long since we first set eyes on one another."

"There, there, don't get angry and don't swear. I believe you without
that," Paklin exclaimed. "Oh you," he said, turning to Solomin, "you,
whom the wise Fimishka called a cool sort of man, and there certainly is
something restful about you--do you think I had the slightest intention
of saying anything unpleasant to anyone or of joking out of place?
I only suggested going with you to Golushkin's. Besides, I'm such a
harmless person; it's not my fault that Mr. Markelov has a bilious
complexion."

Solomin first shrugged one shoulder, then the other. It was a habit of
his when he did not quite know what to say.

"I don't think," he said at last, "that you could offend anyone, Mr.
Paklin, or that you wished to--and why should you not come with us
to Mr. Golushkin? We shall, no doubt, spend our time there just as
pleasantly as we did at your kinsman's--and just as profitably most
likely."

Paklin threatened him with his finger.

"Oh! I se