suddenly grown yellow and wrinkled during those two years in spite of
all sorts of unguents, rouge and powder--about two o'clock in the
afternoon went out with her lap dog and her folding parasol for a
stroll before dinner in her neat little German garden. With a faint
rustle of her starched petticoats, she walked with tiny steps along
the sandy path between two rows of erect, stiffly tied-up dahlias,
when she was suddenly overtaken by our old acquaintance Kirillovna,
who announced respectfully that a merchant desired to speak to her on
important business. Kirillovna was still high in her mistress's favour
(in reality it was she who managed Madame Kuntse's estate) and she had
some time before obtained permission to wear a white cap, which gave
still more acerbity to the sharp features of her swarthy face.
'A merchant?' said her mistress; 'what does he want?'
'I don't know what he wants,' answered Kirillovna in an insinuating
voice, 'only I think he wants to buy something from you.'
Lizaveta Prohorovna went back into the drawing-room, sat down in her
usual seat--an armchair with a canopy over it, upon which a climbing
plant twined gracefully--and gave orders that the merchant should be
summoned.
Naum appeared, bowed, and stood still by the door.
'I hear that you want to buy something of me,' said Lizaveta
Prohorovna, and thought to herself, 'What a handsome man this merchant
is.'
'Just so, madam.'
'What is it?'
'Would you be willing to sell your inn?'
'What inn?'
'Why, the one on the high road not far from here.'
'But that inn is not mine, it is Akim's.'
'Not yours? Why, it stands on your land.'
'Yes, the land is mine ... bought in my name; but the inn is his.'
'To be sure. But wouldn't you be willing to sell it to me?'
'How could I sell it to you?'
'Well, I would give you a good price for it.'
Lizaveta Prohorovna was silent for a space.
'It is really very queer what you are saying,' she said. 'And what
would you give?' she added. 'I don't ask that for myself but for
Akim.'
'For all the buildings and the appurtenances, together with the land
that goes with it, of course, I would give two thousand roubles.'
'Two thousand roubles! That is not enough,' replied Lizaveta
Prohorovna.
'It's a good price.'
'But have you spoken to Akim?'
'What should I speak to him for? The inn is yours, so here I am
talking to you about it.'
'But I have told you.... It really is astonishing that you don't
understand me.'
'Not understand, madam? But I do understand.'
Lizaveta Prohorovna looked at Naum and Naum looked at Lizaveta
Prohorovna.
'Well, then,' he began, 'what do you propose?'
'I propose...' Lizaveta Prohorovna moved in her chair. 'In the first
place I tell you that two thousand is too little and in the second...'
'I'll add another hundred, then.'
Lizaveta Prohorovna got up.
'I see that you are talking quite off the point. I have told you
already that I cannot sell that inn--am not going to sell it. I
cannot ... that is, I will not.'
Naum smiled and said nothing for a space.
'Well, as you please, madam,' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'I beg
to take leave.' He bowed and took hold of the door handle.
Lizaveta Prohorovna turned round to him.
'You need not go away yet, however,' she said, with hardly perceptible
agitation. She rang the bell and Kirillovna came in from the study.
'Kirillovna, tell them to give this gentleman some tea. I will see you
again,' she added, with a slight inclination of her head.
