it mot pour rire, and he
writes with a purpose! He will completely crush the nihilists, and I
quite agree with him. His ideas sont tres correctes."

"That is more than can be said of his past," Valentina Mihailovna
remarked.

"Ah! jeton une voile sur les erreurs de sa jeunesse!" Kollomietzev
exclaimed, pulling off his other glove.

Valentina Mihailovna half-closed her exquisite eyes and looked at him
coquettishly.

"Simion Petrovitch!" she exclaimed, "why do you use so many French words
when speaking Russian? It seems to me rather old-fashioned, if you will
excuse my saying so."

"But, my dear lady, not everyone is such a master of our native tongue
as you are, for instance. I have a very great respect for the
Russian language. There is nothing like it for giving commands or for
governmental purposes. I like to keep it pure and uncorrupted by other
languages and bow before Karamzin; but as for an everyday language, how
can one use Russian? For instance, how would you say, in Russian, de
tout a l'heure, c'est un mot? You could not possibly say 'this is a
word,' could you?"

"You might say 'a happy expression.'"

Kollomietzev laughed.

"A happy expression! My dear Valentina Mihailovna. Don't you feel that
it savours of the schoolroom; that all the salt has gone out of it?

"I am afraid you will not convince me. I wonder where Mariana is?" She
rang the bell and a servant entered.

"I asked to have Mariana Vikentievna sent here. Has she not been told?"

The servant had scarcely time to reply when a young girl appeared behind
him in the doorway. She had on a loose dark blouse, and her hair was
cut short. It was Mariana Vikentievna Sinitska, Sipiagin's niece on the
mother's side.

VI

"I am sorry, Valentina Mihailovna," Mariana said, drawing near to her,
"I was busy and could not get away."

She bowed to Kollomietzev and withdrew into a corner, where she sat down
on a little stool near the parrot, who began flapping its wings as soon
as it caught sight of her.

"Why so far away, Mariana?" Valentina Mihailovna asked, looking after
her. "Do you want to be near your little friend? Just think, Simion
Petrovitch," she said, turning to Kollomietzev, "our parrot has simply
fallen in love with Mariana!"

"I don't wonder at it!"

"But he simply can't bear me!"

"How extraordinary! Perhaps you tease him."

"Oh, no, I never tease him. On the contrary, I feed him with sugar.
But he won't take anything out